News
Nikon hopes to coordinate the applications engineering and service departments, product management and sales teams to prepare for new business opportunities in precision measurement and inspection.
SITECH, including the new Vision Systems and Semiconductor Inspections divisions, will be lead by Takeshi Kamiya, general manager.
"Worldwide sales of semiconductors have been stronger than expected during first two months of 2005," said SIA president George Scalise. "Flat sales in January followed by a modest sequential decline in February are actually encouraging signs given that these two months are normally slow periods for the industry."
Consumer spending patterns have become increasingly important to the worldwide semiconductor industry, Scalise noted. The SIA estimates that half of all semiconductor consumption in 2004 was driven by consumer purchases.
The industry "is paying closer attention to indicators of consumer confidence. At this time, those indicators appear to be positive," Scalise said.
Sales of personal computers and wireless handsets have increased from the same period of 2004 SIA, said. Microprocessor sales are up 11% from February 2004, DRAMs up 36% and ASICs for wireless applications up 53%.
Scalise said excess inventories are no longer a factor in industry sales. "According to iSuppli, excess inventories have continued to decline from $1.6 billion at the end of the third quarter of 2004 and will be at $700,000 million at the end of the first quarter of 2005.
"The overall health of the global semiconductor industry remains strong. If the current trends continue, our forecast for flat industry sales for 2005 could prove to have been overly cautious," Scalise said.
HAVERHILL, MA - Russian semiconductor manufacturers sold about $2 billion dollars worth of chips last year, about one-third the peak of the former USSR, according to a report from Japan.
The Semiconductor Industry News, a Japanese publication which recently began tracking the Russian IC market, found that most manufacturers have been using 4 or 6" wafers for volume production. Their technology is likely "more than 10 years behind leading global manufacturers," according to analyst Dominique Numakura, publisher of the EPTE newsletter and a columnist for PCD&M magazine.
SAN BRUNO, CA -Worldwide Manufacturing USA, Inc. today announced year-end net sales of $6.7 million, up 12% from $6 million last year.
For the year ended Dec. 31, Worldwide posted gross profits of $2.6 million, up 31% from last year.Net income before taxes was $777,978 compared to $502,372 last year. Net profit was $521,486, versus $540,872.
Worldwide is an engineering firm specializing in contract manufacturing and is a direct manufacturer of air-conditioning units for cars. It has two wholly owned subsidiaries, Shanghai Intech Electro Mechanical Products, and Chengde Science & Technology Co., Ltd., located in Shanghai, and Changchun City, China, respectively.
Pre-tax income rose 134% to $3.4 million. Net income was $2.3 million, up from $1.1 million.
More than half (57.3%) of the revenue increase was attributable to the July 2003 acquisition of a plant in Mexico.
The company's largest markets were computer peripherals ($5.1
million) and instrumentation ($4.3 million). About 43% of sales were
made to five
customers, with Illinois Tool Works, at 17%, the only one that accounted
for more than 10%.
In a press statement chairman Sam Russell said, "The progress in the area of cost containment made in previous years flowed through to the realization of record earnings in 2004. We were able to make some adjustments in the second half of the year even as raw materials costs were on the increase. We will continue to be vigilant in the area of cost containment, and we initiated programs in the latter part of 2004 to partner with suppliers who will work with us to decrease delivered materials costs.
Mouser will stock Coto's BGA relays, pico relays, surface-mount relays, reed switches, reed sensors and the Spartan line of SIPs and DIPs.
According to Mouser president Glenn Smith, the distributor has a broad product line and over 100,000 customer accounts primarily focused on the design-in and prototyping stage.
Coto Technology, a division of Kearney National Inc. and wholly-owned subsidiary of Dyson-Kissner-Moran Corp., has manufacturing locations in the U.S., Mexico and The Netherlands.
The two major Chinese fixed-line carriers, China Telecom and China Netcom, are expected to suffer declines in local-phone revenues over the next five years, according to iSuppli. Meanwhile, China has delayed the awarding of licenses for 3G service providers. This will impede capital spending and deployment of those services.
Because of these factors, the period of phenomenal growth for China's fixed-line telecommunications carriers is rapidly coming to an end. These companies are expected to cut capital spending in 2005, iSuppli predicts. Spending is expected to amount to $10.2 billion in 2005, down 10% from 11.3 billion in 2004.
Potential bright spots include booming demand for broadband access, Next-Generation Networks (NGNs) and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV)—plus the eventual advent of the 3G market.
At the end of 2004, China was home to 16% percent of the world's broadband subscribers. By 2008, 23% of the world's broadband subscribers will be in China, iSuppli projects. XDSL now is the major broadband access technology in China.
In 2005, Chinese telecommunications carriers will spend $133.2 million to accelerate the construction of commercial NGNs that can provide packet services like Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and IP video to subscribers.
iSuppli forecasts that China's NGN market will take off in 2005. Furthermore, China Telecom and China Netcom have launched IP TV services in more than 20 cities. The two carriers are aiming for 200,000 to 300,000 subscribers in 2005, which could increase their capital expenditures in this area dramatically.
The largest expenditures in China's telecommunications market over the next few years will be on 3G mobile networks. Carriers, including wireline service providers like China Telecom and China Unicom, are eager to obtain 3G licenses from the government.
iSuppli predicts that the Chinese government probably will begin issuing 3G licenses at the end of 2005, when the nation's homegrown Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA) system matures. The awarding of 3G licenses could result in a major inflection point in carriers' capital expenditure plans.
The telecom industry plays an important role in China's electronics industry. Although carriers will reduce their capital spending in 2005, iSuppli still predicts China's telecom market will grow during the next five years, driven by the nation's huge potential market.
EL SEGUNDO, CA - The top 10 EMS firms grew a combined 22% last year, to nearly $80 billion in sales, according to a report just released by iSuppli Corp.
Flextronics, the largest EMS firm, grew 20.1% to $16.1 billion. Hon Hai, again in second place, grew 30.6% to $14.7 billion.
Sanmina-SCI ($12.5 billion) jumped 20.5% to overtake Solectron ($11.6 billion, on 5.6% growth) for the number three spot. Celestica, up 31.3% to $8.8 billion, rounded out the top five.
Jabil, which did not provide new guidance, predicts sales to grow 20 to 25% range per year through fiscal 2007. The company forecasts a 25% return on invested capital during that time.
TEMPE, AZ - Three-Five Systems has signed a definitive agreement to sell the assets of its small form factor-display business to International Display Works. The deal is expected to close within two to four weeks and is valued at $11 million to $21 million.
The deal covers all outstanding shares of TFS's China-based display subsidiary, and display-related equipment in its Manila, Philippines factory.
IDW will
also assume the obligations of TFS Beijing, including a $2.4 million line of
credit established with a bank located in China.
The sale does not include TFS's display monitor business or electronic
manufacturing services businesses in Redmond, WA; Penang, Malaysia; and Manila.
TFS estimates the total value of the transaction at $11 million to $21 million, including $8 million in cash to be paid to TFS at closing; up to $3 million more in cash to be paid over time, based upon inventory consumption and accounts receivable collections; and up to $9 million in IDW common stock to be paid to TFS in May 2006.
ALAMEDA, CA - Computer systems account for 44% of all outsourcing - a figure that will remain constant even as ODMs grab a larger portion of the market, a top research firm said last week. The total value of computer systems market, including revenues from EMS and ODM manufacturing, will grow 25% to $376 billion by 2008 from $300 billion today, predicts Technology Forecasters Inc.
"The opportunity to manufacture computers for brand-name OEMs ... ," said senior analyst Matt Chanoff, " ... remains the largest opportunity available to outsourcers. In short, computer system manufacturing has been and is likely to remain the lifeblood of the outsource manufacturing industry, but today those outsourcing revenues are being captured more by ODMs rather than EMS companies.
Chanoff said Taiwanese ODMs have supplanted competitors to become the top builders of computing products. "In many respects, the dynamics of the industry have shifted. Most dramatically, Taiwanese-based ODMs, with most of their manufacturing capacity in mainland China, have become the largest manufacturers of PCs and notebooks, outpacing EMS companies for the first time in 2004."
TFI also reported on the getting ready for the WEEE directive, identifying concrete ways that companies can reduce material and assembly costs, accelerate time to market and improve product reliability. "We encourage our member management teams to avoid the reactive tactical approach and take a broader more strategic view of the opportunities these initiatives offer both for the environment and the bottom line," said Pamela Gordon, president.
Finally, the firm introduced a new qualitative research tool that combined signals collection and analysis for identifying opportunities in strategy formulation processes and product innovation. The data suggest that one of the main problems for the industry has been a focus on process rather than on customers.
"The data reflect an industry that is reactive by nature and stuck in its standard way of doing things," said Eric Miscoll, principle analyst. "The dominating perspective seems to be recognition of the changes in the industry and competitive landscape but uncertainty as to how these should to be addressed."
TFI focuses on electronics manufacturing outsourcing.
The SMTA seeks abstracts for the 2nd Annual International Wafer-Level Packaging Congress and Exhibition (IWLPC). The event, scheduled for Nov. 3-4 in the San Jose Doubletree Hotel, will track leading-edge IC packaging and test technologies with special emphasis on 3-D stacked packaging.
200-word abstracts are being accepted through April 1 for two tracks, Wafer-Level Packaging (WLP) and 3-D Stacked Packaging/Chip-Scale Packaging.
For more information:
http://www.smta.org/iwlpc/call_for_papers.cfm
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