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Speaking of this Week — July 16, 2004
December 31, 1969 |Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
By Christine F. Della Monaca, Managing Editor, SMT
Speaking of this Week summarizes and analyzes events in the electronics assembly industry every Friday.
This week was a bit slow, with everyone off at the two halves of SEMICON West in California. But there's still plenty of progress and personnel news, as well as financial results and expectations, partnerships, and trade show news.
- In progress, the Arlington, Va.-based Electronic Components, Assemblies and Materials Association (ECA) announced that its monthly order index rose in June for the 11th consecutive month. Stamford, Conn.-based FEINFOCUS revamped its Web site, and Salt Lake City-based Parvus Corp. was certified to ISO 9001:2000. Universal Instruments Corp., based in Binghamton, N.Y., opened a direct sales and support office in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Herzlia, Israel-based Tecnomatix Technologies Ltd. was named No. 8 in the "Top 10 Plant Operations" segment of MSI Magazine's Top 100 Software Vendors List. Finally, Jersey City, N.J.-based Cookson Electronics Assembly Materials announced it will implement a tin surcharge to cover the tin in ALPHA solder paste — as long as the London Metal Exchange prices exceeds $9,500 per metric ton.
- Personnel news: Hudson, Mass.-based IntegraTECH Solutions Corp. appointed Rick Wicker as VP of sales, and West Haven, Conn.-based Enthone Inc., a business of Cookson Electronics brought on Aaron Storms as managing director of Enthone Latin America and Joe Renda as OEM marketing manager, Enthone PCB Chemistry. Utica, N.Y.-based Indium Corp. brought Paul Salmon on board as director of marketing for Indium in Europe, and Allentown, Pa.-based FlexLink Systems has a new vice president of finance in Nino DiPietro. Finally, Phoenix-based Duraswitch announces that Steve Hanson, former CEO of ON Semiconductor Corp. and a veteran of Motorola, is now a member of its Board of Directors.
- Financial news: South Portland, Maine-based Fairchild Semiconductor reported its results for the second quarter, ended June 27, were up 19 percent year-over-year and 4 percent over the first quarter to $414.3 million. Forest Grove, Ore.-based Merix Corp. saw an even more dramatic increase — sales jumped 97.5 percent year-over-year for the company's fourth quarter ended May 29 to $44.5 million. For the fiscal year, the company saw sales rise to $156.4 million, a 65.3 percent increase over fiscal 2003. Finally, looking ahead, Myrtle Beach, S.C.-based AVX Corp. said it expects to meet or exceed analysts' earnings per share for the quarter ended June 30. We'll find out for sure when the company announces its results at the end of the month.
- Partnership news: LaFox, Ill.-based Richardson Electronics signed a distribution agreement with ABRACON Corp.. Indium is now represented in New England by Creyr Innovation LLC, while Poway, Calif.-based Production Solutions Inc. appointed Protec Sales as its manufacturer's representative for four Southern states.
- Finally, looking back on two trade shows: The Minneapolis-based SMTA announced this week that its inaugural Medical Electronics Symposium, which took place in Bloomington, Minn. in mid-May, saw more than 100 attendees, a majority of whom gave the event positive feedback. And the second annual co-sponsored IPC/Soldertec Lead-free Electronics Conference that took place in Amsterdam at the end of June, was attended by 180 delegates from all over the world.
This just in: According to this week's Quick Vote, half of you say this summer is busier than last, 25 percent say it is less busy, 19 percent say it's about the same, and 6 percent of you don't know.
Have some insight on the industry? See something you don't agree with? Think I'm right on? Send it all to me at christinef@pennwell.com.