BEIJING – Electronics and IT in China registered profits of $26.2 billion in 2009, up 5.2% year-over-year, says the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Revenues of the country’s electronics and IT firms were $750.3 billion during the year, up 0.1% compared to 2008.

The industry's export value, however, dropped to $422.7 billion, down 5.6% year-over-year.

Software revenue jumped 25.6% to $139.1 billion compared to the previous year.

Exports and imports fell 12.8% to $771.9 billion last year, the first drop since 2000. Exports for the sector dropped 12.5% to $457.2 billion, accounting for 38% of China’s total.

Imports were $314.7 billion, down 13.5% year-over-year.

BRUSSELS – Changes to China’s chemical regulations have been adopted for 2010, showing marked differences from the May 2009 release.

Among the changes to chemicals in products, the new regulation is applicable to products that release “new chemical substances in their normal use," a statement not mentioned in the 2009 proposal.

Furthermore, the 2010 amendment is one of the few Chinese regulations clearly referring to the GHS standards issued in Oct. 2006. This provides a clear link between law and standards, says Young and Global Partners, which has issued a report on the new regulations.

Third, the chemical classification envisaged in 2009 is gone. Three classifications exist under the 2010 amendment: general new chemicals, hazardous new chemicals, and priority hazardous chemicals.

Also, annual reporting may provide a framework to implement PRTR requirements in China long-term. Reporting requirements have been extended for producers or importers of hazardous new chemicals (including priority hazardous new chemicals).

Many promotional provisions for the development and use of environmentally friendly chemicals are in the update, Young and Global said. The Ministry of Environmental Protection may foresee natural phase-out of hazardous chemicals in China, as it imposes six-month earlier reporting requirements on producers or importers of hazardous new chemicals before it starts a periodic five-year review of chemicals to update the Chinese Inventory of Existing Chemicals.

The Ministry may expect hazardous chemicals to have been phased out in the market, making it needless to put them in the Chinese Inventory of Existing Chemicals.

The 2010 proposal has 25% more regulatory text than the 2009 version.

MILWAUKIE, OR – ECD has added classes to its free online ECD-University Program. 

Profiling A-Z covers how to determine what points to profile (trouble spots, at-risk/sensitive components); thermocouple attachment methods (strategies for success, what to use when); and thermal quality management’s core steps to profiling success (how to generate the oven recipe, how to document the results and build SPC data, and more). 

Verification 101 shows how reflow oven verification is a key, yet often missing, stage in any complete thermal quality management program. It will be presented Feb. 23 at 8:00 am PST. 

Visit www.ecd.com/ecdu for class schedules and registration information. 

ECD manufactures thermal profiling equipment and software.

WOBURN, MA – Two free seminars on advances in limited access testing will be held in March.

Acculogic North American sales manager Bob Steel and application and flying probe product manager Greg Leblonc will present on Mar. 23 in Newton, MA, and Mar. 24 in Farmington, CT.

The seminars present recent advances in testing methodology, including design for test, new boundary scan tools, and flying probe testers.

The seminars are geared toward test engineers challenged with testing boards with little or no access, the need for faster test development cycles and better test coverage. Additionally, they are for those who work with an OEM or in a contract manufacturing environment, or who do production line tests.

Both seminars are sponsored by Acculogic and Precision Automation.