News
OYSTER BAY, NY - Anti-terrorism efforts may give electronics a boost as U.S. Customs aim to speed processing of incoming shipments. That could give RFID an edge in the battle for the electronic container tracking market.
Customs recently gave indications it will grant shippers meeting security guidelines expedited processing at U.S. ports. According to a new study by research firm ABI Research, continuing government programs will be the main impetus for electronic container tracking.
CBP is taking C-TPAT a step further by adding another tier of security, dubbed "C-TPAT Plus." This new program offers shippers immediate turnaround with no inspection upon arrival, in exchange for implementing more stringent requirements. These new requirements include technologies that can monitor tampering from the point of origin and provide inspectors with a record of events.
For the quarter ended Jan. 1, the company had net income of $490,000, reversing a net loss of $287,000 last year. Net income was $266,000 last quarter.
First-sales are up 49% from 2004, while net income ($756,000) is up more than $1 million.
"We are pleased with our continued revenue and earnings growth in the second quarter," said Jack Oehlke, president and chief executive, in a statement. "Our growth was primarily driven by increased production on programs for established customers involving gaming technology and specialty printer accessories and components. During the quarter, we added to our printed circuit board capacity to address the needs of those customers."
Key Tronic expects third-quarter revenues
to be flat to down 5% from the second quarter. New programs from consumer and medical technology
customers that begin later this year should boost revenues, the firm said.
"We
anticipate that our performance in the second half of fiscal 2005 will
be roughly comparable to the first half," Oehlke said.
Effective today, all current employees will transfer to EPIC. The two plants, located in
Johnson City, TN, and South Lebanon, OH, employ a combined 500 workers.
Siemens purchased the Johnson City facility in 1991 from
Texas Instruments, and acquired the South
Lebanon operations from Eaton Corp. in
2000.
"We are highly committed to maintaining the level of quality and customer service that EMC established under the Siemens brand and look forward to bringing a high level of lean manufacturing efficiency and EMS industry expertise to these operations," said John Sammut, president and CEO of EPIC, in a press release.
"We saw significant momentum from our newer, emerging products as we received significant orders in cabling, embedded software, high speed board design and coverage-driven verification," chairman and CEO Wally Rhines said in a press release.
For the quarter bookings rose 35%. All regions performed well with
Japan and Pacific Rim bookings up over 100%, Europe up 45% and North
America up 15% over a year ago. Bookings were up 20% for the year.
Revenue by region was 40% North America, 30%
Europe, 15% Japan and 15% Pacific Rim.
The company took one-time charges of $4.9 million, primarily for acquisitions and
restructuring.
Pro forma gross margins were down slightly, to 86.7%.
"While we see no sign of an upturn for the overall EDA industry, we note that Mentor and other companies like us with young product lines continue to perform well in this environment," said Greg Hinckley, president.
The firm's book-to-bill is at its highest level since 1996 and backlogs are at their highest point since 2000.Separately, Mentor guided for Q1 sales of $177 million and 2005 revenue growth of 7%, to $760 million.
SAN JOSE - Worldwide sales of semiconductors reached a record $213 billion in
2004, a year-on-year increase of 28% from 2003, the Semiconductor Industry Association reported
today. December chip sales declined 3.5% sequentially to
$18.4 billion, in line
with historical seasonality.
It was the first time since 2000 that global
chip sales surpassed $200 billion.
December sales were 14.6% higher
than December 2003. Fourth-quarter sales, at $55.1 billion,
declined 0.8% sequentially.
BANNOCKBURN, IL - The December 90-day moving average shipments of all types of circuit boards rose 8.7% year-on-year, according to the latest poll of U.S. PCB fabricators. Bookings shot up 30.6%, a sharp rebound from November.
The domestic book-to-bill ratio was 1.04, up 0.08 from November. November was marked the first time the indicator had dropped below 1.0 since April 2003, said IPC, which tracks the data.
The ratio is based on data collected by IPC from rigid and flex producers and is calculated by dividing three months worth of orders by sales. A ratio over 1.0 is considered an indicator of rising demand.
Separately, the ratios were 0.93 for rigid PCBs and 1.41 for flexible circuits.
Rigid boards, estimated by IPC to make up 82% of all domestic PCBs, actually slid in December, with shipments falling 1.3% and bookings down 6.1%. Flex sales grew 32%, and bookings rose - no typo - 274%.
For the year rigid shipments rose 16%, bookings 6.6%. Flexible shipments grew 67.4% and bookings were up 104.3%.
For the year, shipments rose 26.5% while bookings jumped 25.4%. For the month, shipments rose 1.6% and bookings 73.4% vs. November.
Flex sales include some value-added services in addition to the bare flex circuits.
In a statement, IPC cautioned that month-to-month comparisons should be made with caution as they may reflect cyclical effects.
