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Speaking of this Week -- April 4, 2003
December 31, 1969 |Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
By Christine F. Della Monaca
Speaking of this Week reflects on events in the electronics assembly industry every Friday.
As we "progress" towards spring (while it snows here in New England), progress news takes up a lot of the radar screen. There's also tradeshow news, agreements and partnerships, personnel news, and a bit of financial news. Read on:
- Progress news from the home base: Our first issue of SMT China was a smashing success, with more than 15 participating advertisers and an 80-page folio. Look for the April 2003 issue at NEPCON Shanghai next week. Elsewhere in Asia, Asyst Technologies Inc. and Solectron Corp. unveiled a new clean room in Singapore, which Asyst estimates will generate more than US $100 million in production in the facility's first year. In award news (and there's plenty this week), Frost & Sullivan will host its 2003 Excellence in Industrial Technology Awards banquet on Wednesday in San Diego. Companies honored include Nashua, N.H.-based Tecnomatix for Electronic Manufacturing CEO of the Year. Meanwhile, Canada-based EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering Inc. received Frost's 2003 Market Penetration Award in the optical test equipment market. In other news, Des Plaines, Ill.-based Northrop Grumman Corp. received Intel Corp.'s 2002 Supplier Continuous Quality Improvement (SCQI) award for the fourth consecutive year, while Auburn, Mich.-based Dow Corning Corp. won Intel's Preferred Quality Supplier (PQS) award for outstanding performance in providing products and service deemed essential to Intel's success. Helsinki, Finland-based Elcoteq Network Corp. announced the decisions of its Annual General Meeting, including distributing a dividend of 0.40 euros per share and the election of members to its Board of Directors. In unrelated Elcoteq news, the company will sponsor Alameda, Calif.-based Technology Forecasters Inc.'s Quarterly Forum, held at Elcoteq's manufacturing facility in Monterrey, Mexico in September. Finally, there's a bunch of other progress this week, if you look at it another way. Lake Success, N.Y.-based Park Electrochemical Corp.'s advanced electronic materials business, Cologne, Germany-based Dielektra GmbH, is closing its mass lamination operation. This means Dielektra's manufacturing operations will consist solely of high technology treating and Dielektra's proprietary Datlam automated continuous laminate manufacturing. In similar news, Radfeld, Austria-based Datacon Technology AG will cut its workforce 10 percent in Radfeld and Singapore to reach earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of 10 percent in the coming year. Likewise, Brookfield, Conn.-based Photronics Inc. will stop manufacturing photomasks in Phoenix, as well as reduce its worldwide workforce by 10 to 12 percent, with the majority of eliminated positions coming from the cessation of photomask production in Phoenix. These may seem like strange items to file under "progress," but if these cuts help companies return to profitability, they are well served to do so. I think the industry is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and this may be the last bad patch we have to go through to get there. Hope, hope, hope.
- I just got back from APEX in Anaheim to a slew of news about tradeshows. The Minneapolis-based SMTA recognized Dave Gagnon of 3M Co. with the Best of Conference Award for the SMTA Pan Pacific Symposium, which took place in February in Hawaii. And speaking of APEX, a new company launched there: YESTech, a global supplier of integrated yield enhancement solutions, which launched two new products at the show. Among fears of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Asia, the organizers of NEPCON Shanghai/EMT China assured all that the show would go on, with facemasks made available to all exhibitors and visitors throughout the event and medical personnel standing by. Finally, Norwalk, Conn.-based trade organization Edison Welding Institute will present two educational sessions during Assembly East, taking place in June in Boston.
- A few bits of personnel news: LaFox, Ill.-based Richardson Electronics has signed a distribution agreement with Fremont, Calif.-based iTerra Communications LLC, while Shanghai-based Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) bought multiple logic and mixed-signal test systems from Boston-based Teradyne.
- Two new personnel announcements: Irvine, Calif.-based HID hired Bill Richardson as technical training manager to educate HID's customers about iCLASS 13.56 MHz contactless smart card technology, while St. Louis-based Alvey Systems, a FKI Logistex member company, appointed Kevin Kozuszek as manager of marketing communications for FKI Logistex Alvey Systems and White Systems.
- Finally, a bit of (good) financial news: Forest Grove, Ore.-based Merix Corp. reported its results for the third quarter, which ended March 1. Sales were $22.1 million, up from $18.5 million in the comparable year-ago period, but the company's net loss rose to $4.9 million (33 cents per share), compared to $3.8 million (26 cents a share) in the third quarter of fiscal 2002.
This just in: According to this week's Quick Vote, 78 percent of you design in-house, 22 percent of you outsource to an original design manufacturer (ODM), and 11 percent of you aren't 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 mailto:christinef@pennwell.com.