MAHARASHTRA, INDIA -- Some 15 months after announcing plans to invest $5 billion in new manufacturing plants in India, Foxconn looks like it will likely bail from the projects, a top government official is saying.

FRAMINGHAM, MA – Vendors shipped a total of 362.9 million smartphones worldwide in the third quarter, up 1% year-over-year, despite Samsung’s recall of the Galaxy Note 7. Sequentially, shipments grew 5.3%, according to International Data Corp.

PENANG, MALAYSIA – Celestica opened its new Global Business Services (GBS) office here and plans to grow further in the next 18 months, according to published reports.

NEENAH, WI – Plexus reported fiscal fourth quarter revenue ended Oct. 1 of $653.1 million, down 2.3% year-over-year and 2.2% sequentially.

NESS ZIONA, ISRAEL – There is increasing demand for in-house prototyping for research and product development, according to a recent Nano Dimension survey of printed circuit board designers and manufacturers, electrical engineers, OEMs and others interested in 3D-printed PCBs.

BILLINGSTAD, NORWAY – Kitron reported third quarter revenue of NOK 463 million (US$56.1 million), down 1.1% year-over-year.

CAMBRIDGE, MA – University engineers are adding to heat-shrinking materials. A team led by Nicholas X. Fang, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, has manufactured tiny, star-shaped structures out of interconnected beams, or trusses. The sugar-cube-size structures quickly shrink when heated to about 540°F.

FRAMINGHAM, MA – Total smartwatch shipments were 2.7 million units in the third quarter of 2016, down 51.6% year-over-year, says the International Data Corp.

PARSIPPANY, NJ – Sun Chemical and its parent company, DIC, have acquired Gwent Electronic Materials for an undisclosed sum.

SAN JOSE, CA – North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted September worldwide orders (three-month average) of $1.6 billion, up 3.2% year-over-year and down 8.5% sequentially, says SEMI.

SIEVI, FINLAND -- Scanfil reported third quarter revenue of 121.7 million euros, down 10.3% from a year ago.

TAIPEI -- Not content with being the biggest player the EMS/ODM market, Foxconn Technology Group is now eyeing semiconductor design, according to reports.