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BANNOCKBURN, IL -- The 90-day moving average of November shipments of bare PWBs fell 7% year-over-year and orders slumped 18.8%, according to the latest survey of the nation's board fabricators.

For the month, rigid shipments dropped 5.8% and bookings fell 17.3%, while flex circuit shipments dropped 22.6% and bookings plunged 36.8%, IPC said.

Through November, rigid shipments are up 2.4%, and bookings are down 3.8%. Flex circuit shipments are up 5.8% and bookings are down 5.5% versus last year.

The monthly book-to-bill ratio slipped to 0.94. The ratios are calculated by dividing the value of orders booked over the past three months by the value of sales billed during the same period. A ratio of more than 1.0 is considered a sign of future expansion.

Rigid PWBs make up an estimated 90% of survey.About 14% of the value of the PWBs covered in the survey are imported by brokers, IPC said.

Overall, shipments are up 2.6% and bookings are down 3.9%.

IPC said in a statement it expects PWB revenues in 2008 will be flat with 2007.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES — October imports of raw materials for electronics production -- which makes up more than one-third of the Philippines' overall annual imports -- slumped 30% year-over-year, according to the National Statistics Office.

HONG KONG -- Wong Kong King (WKK) Technology has signed a license agreement to manufacture and sell Nihon Superior's patented lead-free alloy in China.

WKK said in a press release it will dedicate a factory in Dongguan, China, to manufacturing SN100C. The site is scheduled to be ready in April, with deliveries beginning in May.

The alloy comes in bar, paste, solid and cored wire, ribbon, preforms, spheres, and final finish forms, and has a full line of fluxes.

BEIJING -- China's government will subsidize appliance purchases by citizens in its poorer regions as part of a massive program aimed at recharging the domestic consumer electronics industry.

Under the new program, called Delivering Appliances to the Countryside, farmers will be given 13% subsidies toward the purchase of new refrigerators, washers, televisions and cellphones. The program set a goal of 480 million units sold under the program over the next four years.

China's National Bureau of Statistics estimates penetration rates of 94 color TVs, 26 refrigerators and 46 washing machines per every 100 rural households, well behind the marks of 138 color TVs, 95 refrigerators and 97 washing machines for every 100 urban households, according to published reports.

CHICAGO -- Research In Motion is asking a US court to invalidate a previous agreement with Motorola under which the firms agreed not to recruit each others' employees.

In a suit filed in a Chicago court, RIM, the world's top maker of smartphones, asserts improper and unfair competitive practices on the part of Motorola is preventing the hiring of perhaps thousands of laid-off workers. The terminated Motorola workers had signed nondisclosure agreements which in effect would make them unhirable by competitors.

SHANGHAI -- Hon Hai will relocate tens of thousands of employees to lower-costs Chinese cities to take advantage of tax benefits and cut costs, according to published reports.

In order to cut operating costs by 20%, Hon Hai (Foxconn) will move up to 160,000 workers from a campus in Shenzhen farther inland to Wuhan and Jincheng, China Tech News said.

TAIPEI -- Foxconn has landed a contract to build the next-generation Apple iMac.

Digitimes is reporting Apple chose Foxconn over Quanta to produce some 800,000 units per month of the all-in-one PC.

Foxconn is also reportedly in the running to nab a deal with Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 smartphone. Other companies still bidding for the program include Pegatron, the manufacturing arm of Asus, and a third undisclosed firm.

The Xperia X1 contractor, HTC, is out of the running, the report claimed,.

STOCKHOLM -- NOTE AB, a top 50 EMS provider, will lay off 100 workers, mostly in Sweden, in response to decreased demand, the company said. The company will take fourth-quarter charges of 50 million kronors ($6.43 million) to cover the layoff costs.

LOS ALTOS, CA – Global electronic equipment revenues will fall 2.2% in 2009, before rebounding to 6.7% growth in 2010, according to a new forecast by Henderson Ventures.

The firm estimates 2008 will show a 1.2% gain, lower than previous forecasts.

According to Henderson, the US will take a 4.4% hit in 2009, then recover 4.3% in 2010. Japan will fall 5.3%, then rebound to 4.6% growth in 2010. Western Europe will decline 6% in 2009, then grow 3.8% in 2010.

China is an exception: It will grow 2.3% in 2009 and 10.1% in 2010.

Declines in commodity prices in 2009 should permit some equipment manufacturers to maintain profitability, Henderson says.

Mobile markets will be hard hit, with cutbacks expected for previously planned 3G rollouts. Overall, handsets sales are predicted to decline 3.2% in 2009, then rebound 10.3% in 2010.

ST. LOUIS -- To date, EMS provider LaBarge Inc. had largely stayed out of the acquisition game.

The company ended that streak today, announcing a deal for Pensar Electronic Solutions for $45 million, subject to certain adjustments.

EL SEGUNDO, CA — Global notebook PC shipments exceeded those of desktops on a quarterly basis for the first time ever in the third quarter, according to iSuppli Corp.

EDGEWOOD, NY -- Dynatech Technology, the exclusive US distributor of Samsung SMT assembly equipment, is relocating its corporate headquarters, order processing and logistic operations from Horsham, PA, to Edgewood, NY.

The company will add warehouse and office staff to handle the increased business seen over the past year as well.
The Horsham office will remain open as a regional sales center.

"Shifting our sales support, order entry and warehousing functions to our New York facility allows us to take full advantage of our extensive resources," said Michael Foster, general manager, Dynatech Technology, in a statement. "Our office and warehouse staff has increased threefold with the change. The increased warehouse space, staff and office infrastructure in Edgewood enables us to expand our operation in a single location for faster response time to customer requests in a more efficient manner."