-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- smt007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueBox Build
One trend is to add box build and final assembly to your product offering. In this issue, we explore the opportunities and risks of adding system assembly to your service portfolio.
IPC APEX EXPO 2024 Pre-show
This month’s issue devotes its pages to a comprehensive preview of the IPC APEX EXPO 2024 event. Whether your role is technical or business, if you're new-to-the-industry or seasoned veteran, you'll find value throughout this program.
Boost Your Sales
Every part of your business can be evaluated as a process, including your sales funnel. Optimizing your selling process requires a coordinated effort between marketing and sales. In this issue, industry experts in marketing and sales offer their best advice on how to boost your sales efforts.
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Events
||| MENU - smt007 Magazine
Speaking of this Year -- 2002
December 31, 1969 |Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
By Christine F. Della Monaca
Speaking of this Week wraps up events in the electronics assembly industry every Friday. It appears in a special edition today to wrap up the events of 2002.
At the beginning of 2002, the monthly press release I receive from Northbrook, Ill.-based IPC -- Association Connecting Electronics Industries chronicling the gyrations of the book-to-bill ratio (and newly launched for 2002 PCB Business Report) stated that the book-to-bill stood at 1.01, besting all of 2001. Hope!
I couldn't believe my eyes. I immediately dialed up IPC to dig deeper. "Don't get too excited," they warned. "It's going to be a flat year."
Flat it was not, from the point of view of the headlines AND the book-to-bill. As of November, the ratio stood at 0.92. This is up from 0.91 in October but down from 0.95 in September. The year high was the January numbers. And the only thing predictable about 2002 was that it was unpredictable.
Take mergers and acquisitions news. There was no blockbuster deal this year, like, say, a Teradyne buying a GenRad, or a Sanmina buying an SCI, but there were plenty of industry heavy hitters who teamed up with each other in less drastic ways. Germany-based EKRA GmbH teamed up with the Circuit Material Division of W.C. Heraeus GmbH & Co. KG, as well as Chiryu, Japan-based Fuji Machine Manufacturing Co. Ltd.. Helsinki, Finland-based Elcoteq Network Corp. formed cooperative partnerships with several telecom providers, and Nashua, N.H.-based MPM solutions provider Tecnomatix Technologies Ltd. was in the news every other week with alliance news.
Despite the gloom and doom, there was plenty of progress news to be had. Some companies, like Red Bank, N.J.-based GlobespanVirata Inc., actually upgraded financial guidance. This tended to happen toward the end of the year, signifying hope. Companies also took on new initiatives, such as Binghamton, N.Y.-based Universal Instruments Corp. translating Web pages into different languages, or Zurich, Switzerland-based DEK introducing an online ordering system for its 248 screen printer. Lots of awards were handed out, too, especially at IPC's Annual Meeting in November. The meeting produced 66 award winners, all members of the trade organization. Before that, the Minneapolis-based SMTA honored six members at SMTA International in September.
When the tide is low, things tend to stick up above the water, and the industry was certainly examining everything that came up in the form of myriad studies and surveys. One hot issue, micro-electrical mechanical systems (MEMS), was examined by Scottsdale, Ariz.-based In-Stat/MDR. The firm found that they are increasingly being used in consumer electronics applications, and forecasted that unit shipments of MEMS devices for consumer electronics products will increase from 5.2 million in 2001 to 189.4 million in 2006. Meanwhile, Norwalk, Conn.-based Business Communications Co. Inc. estimated the current worldwide market for MEMS/MST at $11 billion. By 2007, market revenues will exceed $26.4 billion, the organization said.
China remained heavy on the radar screen. Several companies expanded their horizons into this hot area, including St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Jabil Circuit Inc., Round Rock, Texas-based DuPont Photomasks, Singapore-based Flextronics and Cranston, R.I.-based AIM. These are just a few of the dozens of companies dipping a toe into this sometimes murky water. To help serve all these companies, IPC opened an office there as well, and plans are in the works for a Chinese trade show down the road. And of course, SM China will be there, starting in 2003, to serve your information needs.
Personnel news kept coming, in spite of news of layoffs. Londonderry, N.H.-based Polyclad Laminates and West Haven, Conn.-based Enthone, both Cookson Electronics subsidiaries, has to be the winner in this area, with a new personnel announcement almost every other week.
So what to expect of 2003 after the mixed-up hodgepodge that was 2002? I said at the end of 2001 that I wasn't making a prediction for 2002, because I was sure to be wrong. After witnessing another unpredictable year in the industry, I'm sticking to that promise. Let's just hope for the best.
Got 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.