Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - Features

NEWARK, NY -- IEC Electronics Corp. reported net income of $62,000 on revenue of $7.7 million for its fourth quarter ended Sept. 30. Both figures were down from last year, when IEC reported net income of $575,000 ($260,000 in non-operating income) on revenue of $9.1 million.

ALBUQUERQUE, NM, Nov. 19 -- Sparton Electronics today opened an EMS operation in Albuquerque in a building formerly owned by Honeywell.

The 110,000 sq. ft. facility, in which Honeywell built control products, is now center of operations for Sparton in the southwestern U.S.

As part of the move, Sparton closed and sold a smaller, older facility located in Rio Rancho, NM.

Indianapolis, IN, Nov.19, 2004 -- Specialty Coating Systems (SCS), a business unit of Cookson Electronics, recently opened SCS Shanghai, a full-service Parylene conformal coating facility in China.

The expansion into China comes as SCS has purchased the assets of their former service partner Cycad Specialty Coatings Technology Co. Ltd. The Shanghai staff includes 20 experienced employees led by China Business Manager, Lu Bo.

China Assembly, part of the Cycad group, will continue in their partnership with SCS as the distributor of SCS Parylene deposition systems in China.

Parylene is applied via a vapor deposition polymerization process, for ultra-thin, pinhole-free conformal coating. Applications include circuit boards, ferrite cores, electronic components, medical devices, medical device components and rubber parts in the electronics, automotive, military and medical device industries.

The DIN EN ISO 9001:2000-certified Shanghai facility joins SCS Singapore, Parylene Japan K.K. and Parylene Korea in providing Parylene coating services to Asia.

Clinton, NY -- GPS has become the newest distributor for Indium Corp. of America in the European market, covering Germany, Croatia and Slovenia.

GPS has many years of experience in the electronic assembly industry and will be responsible for selling Indium's line of solder pastes and wave solder fluxes.

According to Indium's European Sales Manager, Tony Howard, "GPS is a good match to our company and we are very pleased to be working with such a strong team. We look forward to growing our business together."

BILLERICA, MA, Nov. 18 -- SMT and seminconductor equipment maker BTU International said third-quarter net sales rose 128.8% to $15.4 million and gross profit rose 157.8% to $3.5 million.

The operating loss rose 45.2% to $2.2 million. The company took a $1.65 million restructuring charge in the quarter due to asset writeoffs and severance costs primarily related to the departure of the previous CEO.

For the quarter SG&A expenses increased 49.1% to $3.2 million year-on-year.

Year-to-date net sales are up 98.2% to $41 million. Gross profit is up 98.2% to $9.4 million. Operating losses are 25.1% lower, at $4 million.

The company attributed the rise to higher demand for SMT and semiconductor packaging products.

For the quarter, as a percent of total revenues, sales in the U.S. rose 8.9%, Europe was up 0.2% and Asia Pacific was down 9.6%. For the year, the percentage of net sales from the U.S. is down 6.1%, but up 1.5% in Europe and 5% in Asia Pacific.

As of Oct. 3, BTU had $800,000 in cash and cash equivalents. As a result of the firm's decrease in tangible net worth following the $1.6 million restructuring charge writeoff and higher borrowings during the third quarter, the company was out of compliance with its total liabilities to tangible net worth covenant. Terms of a waiver are under discussion.

SIOUX FALLS, SD, Nov. 18 -- Raven Industries Inc. today announced record highs for net income and sales for its third quarter ended Oct. 31.

Sales for the quarter climbed 35% to $48.6 million while net earnings jumped 33% to $5.2 million.

In a statement president and CEO Ronald M. Moquist said that the company's Engineered Films division was "the big driver" in the just-concluded quarter, shipping approximately $4 million in reinforced plastic sheeting to hurricane-damaged parts of the U.S.

The company's Electronic Systems Division's sales climbed 34% to $14 million while operating income was up 2% to $1.6 million. "We saw steady improvement in operating efficiencies and throughput during the third quarter but this division still has room to improve profitability," Moquist said.

For the past nine months, ESD's sales were $34.8 million, up 8%, and operating income totaled $3.1 million, down 28% from the nine months a year earlier.