DOWNERS GROVE, IL – After a booming start to the year, Dover Corp. expects sales at its Electronic Technologies business unit to tail off through the second half.

Company executives expect year-on-year sales through December to be flat with the first six months.

“[We] sort of look at Electronic Technologies as being somewhat flat for the second half of the year,” president and CEO Bob Livingston told analysts on the company’s July 23 conference call.

Still, the first-half numbers were very strong. The unit reported second-quarter revenue of $346 million, up 41% year-over-year, on strong demand for electronics assembly and solar equipment. Earnings were up more than 300% to $60 million on an operating margin of 17.2%.

First-half sales totaled $637 million, up 38%, while bookings reached $753 million, climbing 10% sequentially from the first quarter to the second and up 61% from a year ago.

The unit's three primary electronics assembly equipment companies – DEK, Everett­-Charles Technologies and OK International – returned a fourth consecutive quarter of rising order books. Those companies reported a 90% hike in revenue year-over-year, and the near-term forecast is good. DEK and CET are “pretty loaded” through the September quarter and October “looks pretty strong right now,” Livingston said. Moreover, the outlook remains solid: orders booked rose for the fourth consecutive quarter, increasing 20% sequentially. “We expect a comfortable climate in electronic assembly markets to continue in the near term,” Livingston said.

The company does not expect any near-term changes to the unit, which in recent years has divested or folded in such assembly equipment OEMs as Universal Instruments, Vitronics-Soltec and Ovation. “We don’t have any acquisition activity within Electronic Technologies to speak about,” Livingston said.

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