HONG KONG -- Surface Mount Technology  (Holdings) Ltd. has entered a conditional agreement with a London-based private investment company that will inject HK$30 million ($3.9 million) into the besieged EMS company.

OSAKA, JAPAN -- SIIX Corp. and Ayrshire Electronics have entered a business alliance whereby the two contract assemblers will share technical and physical resources to their respective worldwide customer base.

TAIPEI – Hon Hai (Foxconn) reported third-quarter net income of $641 million, down 8.6% year-over-year, on lower demand for PCs and consumer goods. It was the fourth consecutive quarter that profits fell.

Unconsolidated sales were roughly flat at $22.2 billion.

Nine-month net income fell 16% to $1.56 billion on unconsolidated sales of $61.8 billion.

The company’s slow economic recovery is attributed to slowing demand for computers and game machines, say published reports. Global computer shipments went up 3.2% in the third quarter from a year earlier, missing the 5.1% growth estimate, according to Gartner.

This quarter’s profits could rise, however, because of Apple’s iPhone 4S and dropping costs to move factories.

Hon Hai is in the process of moving factories to inland China and expanding in Brazil.

TAICHUNG, TAIWAN -- Foxconn plans to invest millions of dollars in a new facility here to build robots for use in medical applications and other factory automation equipment.