HONG KONG -- Surface Mount Technology  (Holdings) Ltd. has entered a conditional agreement with a London-based private investment company that will inject HK$30 million ($3.9 million) into the besieged EMS company.

OSAKA, JAPAN -- SIIX Corp. and Ayrshire Electronics have entered a business alliance whereby the two contract assemblers will share technical and physical resources to their respective worldwide customer base.

TAIPEI – Hon Hai (Foxconn) reported third-quarter net income of $641 million, down 8.6% year-over-year, on lower demand for PCs and consumer goods. It was the fourth consecutive quarter that profits fell.

Unconsolidated sales were roughly flat at $22.2 billion.

Nine-month net income fell 16% to $1.56 billion on unconsolidated sales of $61.8 billion.

The company’s slow economic recovery is attributed to slowing demand for computers and game machines, say published reports. Global computer shipments went up 3.2% in the third quarter from a year earlier, missing the 5.1% growth estimate, according to Gartner.

This quarter’s profits could rise, however, because of Apple’s iPhone 4S and dropping costs to move factories.

Hon Hai is in the process of moving factories to inland China and expanding in Brazil.

TAICHUNG, TAIWAN -- Foxconn plans to invest millions of dollars in a new facility here to build robots for use in medical applications and other factory automation equipment.

SHENZHEN – Nam Tai Electronics reported third-quarter net income fell 86% year-over-year to $1.1 million on a change in the electronics manufacturing company’s focus to lower margin products.

WASHINGTON, DC — The 90-day moving average worldwide semiconductor sales rose 2.1% year-over-year in the September quarter, the Semiconductor Industry Association said today.

TORRANCE, CA – Seika Machinery said an independent lab has confirmed its Solder Paste Recycling machine is capable of producing pure solder ingots from solder paste.

The ingots produced by the SPR Unit are reportedly 100% pure, with no additives or impurities added to the solder paste during the recycling process. The system removes the flux from the metal and produces a flux-free ingot. There are no voids inside the solder ingots, says Seika.

A number of analyses were performed, including Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, Inductively Coupled Plasma technique, and Scanning Electron Microscopy.

The machine enables 100% of the metal content of waste solder paste to be recovered as solder bar, the firm says.

BOSTON -- The fall trade shows in the US have come and gone and, as usual, the up-and-down attendance was the story.

NEENAH, WI – Electronics manufacturing services firm Plexus reported fourth-quarter net income was $18.3 million, a drop of 31.1% year-over-year.

ANGLETON, TX – Contract manufacturer Benchmark Electronics posted sales of $570 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30, down 7.2% year-over-year on an unexpected drop in its test and instrumentation market segment.

BANNOCKBURN, IL – The electronics manufacturing services market is projected to grow 14.8% globally and 10.2% in North America this year, according to a new IPC study.

BILLINGSTAD, NORWAY – Electronics manufacturing services firm Kitron reported third-quarter 2011 revenue of NOK 352.7 million, up a slight 0.2% year-over-year.

Earnings before interest and tax were NOK 9.2 million, down 17.8% compared to the same period last year.

Net income for the quarter was NOK 5.6 million, up 11.4% year-over-year.

New orders accounted for NOK 391.6 million, and the backlog was NOK 820.8 million, up 17.2% and down 3.2% respectively.

The company opened a factory in China in September. Production has begun, and strong growth is expected during the next 12 to 18 months.

US$1 = NOK 5.4141