TEMPLE, TX, Sept. 14 — SMT Resource Group and Encore Capital Leasing rolled out a leasing program for buyers of assembly equipment. The companies provide 100% financing and terms ranging from 12 to 84 months.

SMT Resource Group sells, integrates and provides support and service for new and refurbished assembly equipment.

Encore provides financing for equipment procurement.

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EL SEGUNDO, CA, Sept. 9 -- Market research group iSuppli Corp. today trimmed its 2005 chip forecast after worldwide semiconductor revenue growth recently showed signs of slowing.

The slowing will mainly affect fourth-quarter revenues, iSuppli forecast, saying second-half strong growth will be in the range of 10% higher than the first-half. First-half global semiconductor sales grew 31.4% year-on-year, but second-half sales will decelerate to 20% growth, the firm said.

iSuppli revised its 2005 forecast to 9.6%, down from 11.8%. The firm upped its forecast for 2004 one point, to 25.4%.

iSuppli forecast 1H 2005 sequential growth of less than 2%, followed by a pickup to 6% in the second half.

DRAM sales are expected to take a dive in 2006, limiting overall semiconductor growth to 2%. iSuppli predicts 2006 will mark the bottom of the semiconductor downturn.

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SAN JOSE, Sept. 8 -- Deutsche Bank today reaffirmed its cautious outlook for the EMS industry, citing recent anecdotes from semiconductor makers, OEMs and retailers.

Analyst Chris Whitmore said many technology companies performed below expectations in July and August and "hope for a robust pickup in September is fading quickly." OEMs are dropping inventory levels, he noted, and  concern is greatest for EMS companies that build communications gear.

"We continue to believe that the combination of slowing end demand and excess inventory across the supply chain will result in a significant deceleration of production trends across the EMS industry. We are most concerned about EMS vendors with substantial exposure to communications infrastructure."

As evidence, Whitmore cited: 

• Wal-Mart's tepid same-store sales increase of 0.5% in August and the company's failure to mention electronics in its list of top-performing products.
• Target, which cited electronics as one of the worst performing products in August.
• Best Buy's August same-store sales increase of 4.3%, below 6.7% last year and Wall Street's forecast of 5.4%.
• 3Com's cutting of its forecast for the August quarter and belief that sales declined 10 to 13% sequentially.
• Cautious announcements by Intel, Fairchild, IDT, Altera and Cypress.

In addition, Whitmore noted warnings from several semiconductor companies of reduced inventory levels at OEMs, which could impact EMS production. DB believes market sentiment "is still too optimistic about EMS fundamentals"  over the next six quarters.

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Arlington, VA, Sept. 8, 2004 -- The number of U.S. IT jobs increased by just 2% between the first quarter of 2003 and the first quarter of 2004, and demand for IT workers is expected to slow during the rest of the year, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA).

 

The overall size of the U.S. IT workforce grew from about 10.3 million to 10.5 million jobs from 2003 to 2004, according to an ITAA telephone survey of 500 hiring managers from both IT and non-IT companies across the U.S. But hiring managers indicated they will seek to fill a total of 230,000 jobs in 2004, down from about 500,000 IT jobs filled in the past year.

 

Among the factors in the slow job growth include U.S. companies' continuing concerns about the economy, rising costs of health care and other benefits, increasing productivity among workers and offshore outsourcing.

 

Some job classifications can look forward to bright futures, however. The report indicates that technical support and network system design saw the largest year-to-year increases in employment, up 5%. And technical support scored the largest number of jobs—67,000—followed by network systems development and programming.

 

Given current concerns about terrorism, critical infrastructure protection and homeland security, information security appears to hold the greatest IT job growth potential over the next three to five years, the ITAA said.

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