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FRANKLIN, MA, Aug. 23 - Speedline Technologies signed a number of service agreements, beefing up its sales and marketing in southeast Asia.

Under the freshly minted agreements, Niche Tech (2004) will provide services in Thailand, Sigmatek Corp. in Taiwan, SIP Technology Sdn Bhd in central and northern Malaysia, and SIP Technology Pte. Ltd. in southern Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.

In a press statement, Speedline president and CEO Pierre de Villemejane touted the firms' experience. "The management and staffs ... represent years of experience in the capital equipment and PCB assembly industries. All are industry veterans who clearly understand the challenges faced by - and are well equipped to deliver the required solutions to - the region's manufacturers."

(Ed.: Click on the respective company names for links to their Web sites.)

FRANKFURT, Aug. 24 -- Dismissing fears of an impending downturn, Gartner Dataquest last week inched up its 2004 forecast for global semiconductor sales.

The reseach firm predicts revenues will grow 27% this year, to $226 billion. Gartner previously forecast growth of "more than 25%."

The report followed on the heels of an improved outlook for semiconductor tools from the trade group SEMI. It is not clear, however, whether Gartner's report takes into account a recent announcement that Intel Corp. will slash pricing by up to 35%.

In a statement, Gartner said concerns that rising inventories in the supply chain were overstated. "Had the increased inventory been accompanied by a flat or even falling semiconductor market, it would have been of grave concern. In a rising market, increasing inventory levels are normal.

Gartner's research vice president Richard Gordon acknowledged the industry still harbors jitters from the last downturn. "Despite the improving market conditions that semiconductor vendors have enjoyed over the past several quarters and the expectation that revenue growth this year will be close to 30%, this industry upcycle is notable in that few in the industry have felt able to acknowledge it as a boom."

NEW YORK, Aug. 24 - A majority of U.S. business and IT executives anticipate increases in IT expenditures over the next three years, according to results of a survey released today by Accenture.

The study, which queried more than 300 general business managers and IT executives of large U.S.-based companies, found that 55% of respondents expect their organizations to increase their IT expenditures over the next three years, with only 10% expecting decreased spending.

In addition, of the 84% of respondents who indicated that productivity at their companies had increased over the past several years, most identified IT-related factors as key to that increase. Specifically, 83% cited "better use of technology" and 65% selected "the right amount of investment in technology."

However, the survey identified several areas where the business managers were disappointed in the effectiveness and impact of IT. Most notably, 47% of business managers and 51% of IT executives said their companies did not know how to make their technology organizations accountable for delivering real business value. In addition, 52% of the business managers said that IT is underdelivering relative to what their companies spend.

The results are based on an online survey conducted in June and July. A total of 302 executives were surveyed at U.S. companies with more than 5,000 employees and median annual revenue of $10 billion.

SAN JOSE, Aug. 19 -- The July 90-day average of semiconductor equipment bookings showed orders outpacing sales by a margin of 1.05:1.

North American-based semi tool makers posted $1.61 billion in orders in July, using a three-month average basis, the trade group SEMI said today. Bookings were even with revised June numbers and 128% ahead of a year ago.

A book-to-bill of 1.05 means that $105 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.

The July 90-day average of worldwide billings was $1.54 billion, up 2% over revised June levels and 96% ahead of last year.

"Bookings have increased sequentially for eleven months and are at the highest point since early 2001," said Stanley T. Myers, president and CEO of SEMI. "The bookings and billings values for North American-based equipment companies have stabilized at high levels and support our global billings outlook for the second highest revenue year on record for our industry."

TORONTO, Aug. 20 -- Celestica Inc. is rolling out what it calls the EMS industry's first end-to-end environmental services offering, to aid OEMs converting to lead-free designs and processes ahead of European Union legislative mandates.

The EMS maker is offering what it calls its Green Services to OEMs seeking to comply with pending environmental initiatives, including the Restriction of Hazardous Substances legislation, which will require the removal of a number of hazardous substances, including lead, from electronics components by July 1, 2006.

Depending on they type products they design, OEMs will go through the transition in stages, Celestica general manager of engineering services Dan Henes observes. "There's a suite of [stages] that each customer will have to go through. Some will go through [these stages] themselves, some will need help."

In a phone interview with Circuits Assembly, Henes said that Celestica can offer either "point" services - specific solutions to specific problems, for example, help with certain design problems - or an end-to-end solution. "By breaking this into bite-sized pieces, customers can move at their own pace. They need to conduct an assessment of their designs and materials are in terms of compliance. We can do that BOM/risk analysis for them."

Among the services offered are consulting services, turnkey product conversion and technology qualification.

Henes noted that companies like Celestica, which directly handles designs from OEMs and buys materials from vendors, are best-positioned to help the supply chain navigate through the dizzying maze of lead-free alternatives and paperwork. "There's the synchronization of design, manufacturing processes and the component supply base. Some customers are struggling with, who's doing what in the supply base? We're probably in the best position to navigate that."

As evidence, Henes points to obscured effects of the lead-free conversion, which he believes EMS firms are attuned to. "You may have a product today that has 100 parts. Half meet lead-free legislation, and require no banned substitutes. The design and supplier [of those parts] say, 'We don't have to do anything for those.' But you need [lead-free] solder, which requires higher processing temperatures, and now you have to go back and qualify these new redesigned parts and put them side-by-side with the components that the OEM thought were OK. It's not because of lead conversion, but the temperature extremes that are a side effect of the conversion

The transition, Henes says, is like a "massive industry engineering change." He asserts that for a Tier 1 EMS provider like Celestica, "this is what we do for a living."

According to Celestica, the company has been working on environmental compliance issues since 1999. Consortia work to date has included building lead-free boards to support the High Density Packaging Users Group's lead-free programs; sponsoring and directing the Centre for Microelectronics Assembly and Packaging's lead-free development activities for Canadian universities, and leading a NEMI program on the assembly and reworkability of lead-free solder joints.

SIOUX FALLS, SD, Aug. 19 -- Raven Industries reported second-quarter net income climbed 15% to a record $3.6 million. For the quarter ended July 31, the company reported revenues were up 3% to $37.1 million.

For the first half, Raven reported net earnings up 23% to $9.1 million, and sales up 3% to $75.5 million.

"Our second quarter was budgeted to be our toughest, with earnings projected to be flat or slightly down," president and CEO Ronald Moquist said. "[T]hree of our four operations performed beautifully. We could have done even better except for the weak performance of our Electronic Systems Division." The ESD group provides EMS services.

ESD's sales were up, but less than 1%, to $11.7 million. Operating profit dropped 52% to $773,000. The division struggled with start-up problems with a new customer and continuing material supplier issues. As a result, shipments were delayed and inventory levels increased substantially, management noted. For the first half, sales of $20.8 million were down 4% and operating income of $1.5 million was 46% lower than last year.

Moquist said the full-year outlook continued to appear strong and that production problems will be ironed out in the third quarter. "We believe the positive trends set in the first half will continue to help drive sales and earnings growth through the second half of this year."