News
Sales were boosted $10.5 million by by the Ottawa operations acquired in the first quarter of 2004. Organic growth was $7.9 million, the firm said.
Operating margins fell to 10.2%, from 10.7% in 2003.
Fourth-quarter sales and operating margins were below the annualized rates. Sales fell 3.5% year-on-year, and operating margin were 7.5%.
Chin Poon was the world's 36th largest PCB maker in 2003, according to PCD&M consulting editor Dr. Hayao Nakahara of NT Information.
CALRSBAD, CA - Palomar Technologies, a maker of equipment and process development for electronics assembly, has moved to a 39,000 sq. ft. facility with a larger cleanroom and applications lab.
"It was important for Palomar to acquire upgraded laboratory facilities for advanced R&D and applications development," said Kevin Conlon, president of Palomar Technologies. "These new facilities will better enable us to develop the equipment and process solutions required for the advanced applications under development by our customers, notably those which require a cleanroom."
The new plant will house Palomar's central offices, design and manufacturing, a larger cleanroom, and an applications, process development and prototyping lab.
CHICAGO - Almost every leading tech firm says it will hire new employees in 2005, according to an annual survey of chief executives by a major consulting firm.
Deloitte & Touche, in its 2005 CEO Survey of the fastest growing technology companies in North America, found 95% of tech CEOs plan to hire more workers this year.
The survey was administered to CEOs of companies ranked on Deloitte's listing of the 500 fastest growing technology companies. Nearly 150 CEOs responded to the survey, conducted earlier this quarter.
Of the 95% of CEOs who say they are hiring, 42% plan to add at least 25% more employees in the next 12 months, and 19% plan to add more than 50%.
More CEOs are convinced that 2005 will bring better times. A total of 36% of respondents predicted higher growth in 2005, compared to 21% last year (results may not correlate due to differences in reporting). And almost 75% of the CEOs surveyed were "extremely" or "very" confident about their companies' future growth.
The top challenge for growth is bringing new products to market, said more than one-quarter of the respondents. Other ranking issues are pricing pressure and building strategic relationships.
Tech CEOs feel government initiatives aren't called for to promote growth over the next 12 months, the survey found.
The new facility houses a manufacturing plant for rework vision equipment, plus sales and administration offices for all APE companies.
APE's government and through-hole manufacturing will continue at its New York facility, while training, classrooms and technical development will be conducted in Key Largo.
Elk Grove Village, IL, March 29 - EMS company SigmaTron International Inc. has signed a non-binding letter of intent to purchase Able Electronics Inc., headquartered in Hayward, CA, with an additional manufacturing facility located in Tijuana. The company also announced its intent to sell its Las Vegas operation to Grand Products Inc.
Able is an ISO 9001:2000 certified, privately-held EMS company serving OEMs in the test and measurement, medical instruments, telecommunications, computer peripherals, industrial controls and genetic research industries.
Peter Dennis, Able's president, said, "Combining with SigmaTron completes one of our strategic goals - increasing capabilities domestically while reducing time to market and total cost for our customer base...With SigmaTron's international footprint we believe we will be in a position to offer our customers a wider range of solutions to their EMS requirements."
SigmaTron operates manufacturing facilities in Elk Grove Village, Las Vegas, Acuna, Mexico, Fremont, CA and Suzhou-Wujiang, China, with engineering and materials sourcing offices in Taipei, Taiwan.
The Vegas EMS center specializes in the assembly of electronic products and cables for a range of customers primarily in the gaming industry.
Grand Products is contract assembler of coin-op games and gaming machines. Based in Des Plaines, IL, the company is licensed by the Nevada Gaming Commission to manufacture and distribute gaming devices.
Terms of the proposed transactions were not disclosed.
RICHARDSON, TX -- TXP-Texas Prototypes Inc., a provider of prototype electronics manufacturing services, will double its facility, expanding to 31,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing and lab space.
The newly built-out facility includes a 2,500 sq. ft. cleanroom.
The company
said 40 to 50 people will be employed at the location.
Michael C. Shores,
president and CEO, said, "The newly acquired facility will accommodate the
company's current expanding business needs while providing continued growth
potential for the company and all of its divisions."
On a conference call last year, CEO Mike Cannon said the company is not for sale.
The company last week said its February quarter net loss narrowed to $3.4 million, from a loss of $68 million last year. Revenue fell to $2.76 billion from $2.89 billion.
FRAMINGHAM, MA - Despite strong growth in the fourth quarter and the rest of 2004, delayed recovery in Japan
and a cautious outlook in the U.S. have led to slightly lower
expectations for worldwide PC shipments in 2005.
Research firm IDC today lowered its
forecast for total worldwide PC
shipments for 2005 to 9.7%, from 10.1% in November. The good news:
Demand is likely to shift into later years and the growth forecast
remains
above 8% through the end of 2009.
Total shipments are expected to reach 195.4 million in 2005 on growth of 9.7% with total shipment value growing by 5.3% to $209 billion, IDC said. Shipments are projected to reach 273 million in 2009 with a value of $245 billion.
"Despite fears of slowing growth, particularly in the U.S. consumer segment, the PC market was fairly robust in the fourth quarter of 2004 with strong demand in the consumer and business segments," said Loren Loverde, director of IDC's worldwide quarterly PC tracker. "While overall growth in 2005 will be slower than 2004, we expect to see continued strength in portables and in emerging markets. Although worldwide growth will slip into single-digits this year, long-term drivers such as mobile adoption, replacement of older systems, and growing penetration will support healthy growth through the end of the decade."
"While IT buyers in the United States have
indicated
firm intentions to buy in 2005, we have kept the U.S. forecast modest
because
of what we see as a host of risk factors," added Roger Kay, vice
president of client computing at IDC. "These factors include a recovery
that appears to
be getting long in the tooth, a lack of jobs growth, rising budget and
trade
deficits, persistently high oil prices, a treasury-draining foreign
war, rising
interest rates, a stock market that continues to move sideways, and
record-low
household savings rates."
Following a second year of nearly 11% growth, the U.S. market is
expected to slow to 7.6% growth in 2005. Consumer growth may fall to low single
digits in the first quarter of 2005 but full-year growth should top 7%.
Business growth will lead the market while the public sector is expected to
trail other segments.
Adoption
of portable PCs continues to fuel growth in Western Europe.
Growth in portable PC shipments should top 20% in 2005 following over 30%
growth in 2004 and nearly 40% in 2003. The consumer segment remains a key
driver with portable shipments growth of more than 40% outpacing the commercial
segment by roughly 5 points. Growth of desktop PC shipments is expected to slow
to low single-digits from nearly 10% in 2004.
In Japan,
the business segment continues to lead the market, although relatively strong
growth of 12% in 2004 is expected to fall below 5% in 2005. Unfortunately, the
consumer and public sectors have not recovered, and growth in these segments is
expected to be roughly flat in 2005.
For the
rest of the Asia-Pacific market, growth is expected to slow from over 16% in
2004, but remain in double-digits despite the Indian Ocean Tsunami and efforts
to control China's
economy. Public sector growth is expected to outpace growth in business
segments by the end of the year, while consumer growth will slip into
single-digits.
AYESHIRE, UK - TT Electronics, a provider of resistors, sensors and EMS services, reported preliminary sales from continuing operations of £597.4 million, up 13% from £527.5 million in 2003.
Profits, before goodwill amortization and
taxes and not including one-time charges, were £30.1 million, up from £20.0
million.
Demand for automotive products grew 10%, while telecom and
computers grew 35%, TT Electronics said.
Sales from electronics increased 16% to £403.6 million. Electronics showed an operating profit of £26 million before goodwill amortization, versus £16.9 million last year.
During 2004, the company acquired Optek Technology, substantially expanding its sensor business, and Dage Ltd., giving it an electronics manufacturing base in China. Dage Ltd. was acquired for cash considerations of £8.0 million. In the year ended April 30, Dage Ltd. had profit before tax of £1.2 million on sales of £19.3 million.
John Newman, executive chairman, said in a statement: "Our future strategy lies in both passive and active components and we continue to develop new technologies such as our advanced inductive sensors and high intensity visible light emitting diodes which are attracting significant interest. Our recent expansion into China is an important strategic development enabling us to continue to meet the requirements of our customers, particularly in the automotive industry."
In 2005, TT Electronics expects stable demand in North America and continued growth in China.
The company is embarking on new programs to develop a range of surface-mount optoelectronic devices and LEDs.
The Japanese electronics giant already
outsources production of cell
phones (to Flextronics), PS2 video game consoles (to Hon Hai) and laptop PCs (Asustek Computer). However,
the company performs most of its own manufacturing -- and even
produces its own screen printers, placement machines and AOI.
But earlier
this month Sony named Howard Stringer as its new CEO, signaling changes
may be coming. As an outsider, Stringer may be more likely to push for
outsourcing than his predecessors at Sony, a company notorious for a
"do-it-ourselves" approach.
ATLANTA — UP Media Group Inc.
today announced that the 14th annual PCB Design Conference West 2005
provided
over 55 industry-leading exhibitors with a targeted audience of
approximately 1,400 attendees.
The audience included corporate executives,
purchasing/procurement executives, design engineers and managers,
process engineers, PCB layout designers and others, who came to the
March 7-11 event, held at the Santa Clara (CA) Convention Center.
PCB Design Conference West is North America's largest annual design-oriented conference and exhibition for printed circuit board engineering, design and manufacture. This year's Silicon Valley-based venue provided attendees with an excellent setting for instruction, networking and face-to-face marketing opportunities.
The show received positive feedback from attendees and exhibitors.
"We are still on a high from PCB West 2005. It was a great two-day exhibition for us," said Randy Eager, CEO and cofounder of DesignAdvance Systems Inc. "We demonstrated our new user-assisted component placement product, and we were thrilled to generate a great deal of attendee interest and to capture many highly qualified leads."
"It was exciting to bring PCB West back to the Santa Clara Convention Center again after two years in San Jose," said UP Media Group President Pete Waddell. "Our attendees find the Santa Clara facility to be a convenient, central Silicon Valley location, and they like the free parking. This year's conference program was first-rate—over 35 technical courses focusing on today's toughest design challenges. And our two-day exhibition was equally successful, resulting in an excellent re-sign rate for PCB West 2006."
In addition to the exhibition and conference, several special events were well attended and received praise from those who participated. These include the PCB Technology Forum and Welcome Luncheon, the keynote address by Bartlett Manufacturing president Doug Bartlett on "The Future of the North American PCB Industry," the Opening Night Reception and Grand Giveaway of exhibitor-sponsored prizes valued at $200 or more, the French Quarter Masquerade Party, the PCB Top Gun competition and the PCB Design Peer Awards competition.
Several exhibitors announced or demonstrated new products and services at PCB West 2005. Those products and services are detailed in a press release posted in the "What's New" section on the www.pcbwest.com home page.
Dates for the 15th annual PCB West 2006 have been announced: March 27-31 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. For more information, visit www.pcbwest.com.
UPMG's next trade show is the 10th annual PCB Design Conference East 2005, which will be held October 10-14 at the Expo Center of New Hampshire in Manchester, NH. For more information, visit www.pcbeast.com.
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