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Speaking of this Week — July 2, 2004
December 31, 1969 |Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
By Christine F. Della Monaca, Managing Editor, SMT
Speaking of this Week summarizes and analyzes events in the electronics assembly industry every Friday.
Even though this was a relatively quiet week, what with everyone's mind on the red, white and blue, some pretty big news came our way. IPC announced its book-to-bill ratio for May, showing a leveling off in growth. There's also lots of big-name progress news, alliances and acquisitions, personnel moving and shaking, and financial announcements. The MEMS marketplace also got a good, hard look. On with it:
- First, Northbrook, Ill.-based IPC — Association Connecting Electronics Industries' Book-to-Bill Ratio and PCB Business Report for May. The book-to-bill stood at 1.11, holding steady from April, when it dropped from 1.12 from March and 1.13 in February, the highest point of the year. These data in bar chart form, as provided by the IPC, illustrate a plateau in the numbers. May's figure is certainly higher than the lowest point in the past year, which was 1.00 a year ago in May 2003, and as much as we'd like to see complete vertical growth, especially after the prolonged downturn, maybe a plateau means the ratio is ramping up to rocket up again. In any event, it's not shrinking. Meanwhile, the PCB Business Report showed somewhat mild growth month-over month. The booking index was 168.8, representing a 23.8 percent growth rate over April, and the shipment index was 138.7, climbing 5.5 percent from April's numbers.
- In progress, Utica, N.Y.-based Indium Corp. reported that Adrian Low of the company's Asia-Pacific operations in Singapore has received SMTA certification in the SMT process. Speaking of SMTA, the Minneapolis-based trade organization announced a Global Membership type for large companies with multiple locations. Houston-based BP Microsystems standardized its automated machines on Windows XP, and Buffalo, N.Y.-based NanoDynamics Inc. was awarded a $100,000 Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase I award from the U.S. Air Force. In similar news, Cambridge, Mass.-based SatCon Technology Corp.'s Electronics Division announced that it received $3.3 million in new contracts during its second quarter, a large chunk of which was assemblies used by military satellite communications mobile base stations. Finally, in Asia expansion news, Richardson, Texas-based ASSET InterTech Inc. opened a technical support office in Hong Kong, and Hong Kong-based ASAT Holdings Ltd. opened a sales office in Tokyo.
- In the biggest partnership news of the week, Norcross, Ga.-based Siemens Dematic has formed a major educational consortium with Atlanta-based Georgia Tech, Rochester, N.Y.-based Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Toronto-based George Brown College, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and Engent. In employment news, Troy, N.Y.-based GlobalSpec and online recruiting site Dice Inc. have partnered to create an engineering job search on GlobalSpec. Columbus, Ohio-based Battelle has formed an alliance agreement with the Tokyo-based Japan Research Institute Ltd., and Ashburn, Va.-based ZESTRON America signed TechSystems International as its Southern California representative. In divestitures, Plainview, N.Y.-based Aeroflex Inc. announced it will sell its Bloomingdale, N.J.-based shock and vibration control device manufacturing business. And Milpitas, Calif.-based Solectron Corp., in line with its previously announced strategy to divest non-core assets, sold its 63 percent ownership in U.S. Robotics to company management.
- High-profile personnel news: Former Cookson Electronics veteran Alan Rae, Ph.D. has joined NanoDynamics Inc. as vice president of market and business development. Hollis, N.H.-based JPSA Laser has a new manager of its newly formed Electrical Engineering Group in Mike Lusczyk, and St. Louis-based Watlow named Ed Bailey information systems relationship manager for Winona.
- In financial news, Quebec City, Canada-based EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering Inc. saw sales growth of 35.4 percent to reach US $20.5 million in the third quarter ended May 31. And Helsinki, Finland-based Elcoteq Network Corp.'s Board of Directors is looking to strengthen shareholder equity, and is looking into combining the company's current two share series.
- Finally, a look at MEMS: Scottsdale, Ariz.-based In-Stat/MDR says that MEMS suppliers saw business pick up in the fourth quarter of 2003, and it's been strong ever since. This year promises to be a good one for this nascent industry, with venture funding, unit shipments and revenues all looking strong.
This just in: According to this week's Quick Vote, 67 percent of you will not attend SEMICON West the week after next in California, and 33 percent of you are still not sure.
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.