News
Merix will buy Data Circuit Systems Inc., a provider of quickturn board fabrication services, for a total purchase price of $43 million, consisting of $41 million in cash and a $2 million note. The move effectively triples Merix's customer base.
For its fiscal year ended Sept. 30, Data Circuit Systems had net income of $2.3 million on sales of $27.7 million. The firm posted an EBITDA of $5.8 million.
In a press statement, Merix chairman and chief executive Mark Hollinger said, "Merix has been focused on growing and enhancing its quickturn business for some time. While we have made significant progress in this endeavor, this combination enhances our market opportunity by providing added scale, tripling our customer base, diversifying our end markets, adding experienced rep firms to complement our direct sales force, and augmenting our quickturn service offering to include 24 hour turnaround."
Delays are still being reported at transit hubs and importers continue to rush shipments in advance of unfilled quotas, Trans Global Logistics said in an email note.
Fuel surcharges and freight rates remain high as stabilizing oil prices and moderating shipping demand have been offset by the weak U.S. dollar. Today, OPEC announced a $1 per barrel increase for oil.
Activity remains strong at Taipei and Shanghai, where new customs clearance procedures went into effect Dec. 1 and products to be shipped are reportedly delayed up to three days.
China is expected to see a bump in activity in the next four weeks, leading up to the Chinese New Year on Feb. 9. "We expect markets in China to be very active in early January as importers rush to take advantage of quota elimination on many apparel categories. Export activity will also spike in early February because Chinese factories will shut down during the weeklong Lunar New Year holiday," Trans Global wrote.
In a press statement Siemens L&A EA chief executive Tilo Brandis said, "The partnership between ASYS and Siemens is defined by developing creative, flexible solutions and the permanent optimization of the business relationship."
The relationship between ASYS and Siemens dates to 1995. In 1997 ASYS designed and developed a lift system for connecting a line of Siemens' placement systems in a parallel manner. To date ASYS has supplied more than 1,000 of the systems to Siemens.
The Siplace Partnership Award recognizes business partners that benefit users of Siemens' products or services.
The electronics company has chosen a SnAgCuIn alloy for its high-reliability communications and medical gear and larger PCBs, according to Nikkei Shinbum News.
The company chose the solder for its melting temperature, tensile strength, thermal cycling and aging characteristics, the report said. SnAgCuIn melts at 204C, well below the point of other lead-free alloys. The alloy is supplied by Singapore Asahi Chemical and Solder Industries Ltd.
According to the report, another lead-free alloy -- this one SnZn -- failed to pass Hitachi's tests.
Hitachi said that while indium costs more than other metals, the price point is "only 20 to 30%" higher and that all lead-free alloys cost more than SnPb solder.
Japanese OEMs have been early adopters of lead-free alloys. According to the report, NEC, Sharp and Fujitsu use SnZn, while Panasonic uses SnAgBiIn.
The award honors SMTA members who stand out as leaders within the association.
In a press release, SMTA said Tsoi's devoted hours of time, personal financial support and leadership so that colleagues could benefit from SMTA membership via a local chapter. He was the first student from China to earn SMTA Certification and joined other chapter officers in Minneapolis for a Leadership Forum last March.
Frank, of FeinFocus GmbH, received the award for his paper "Detecting and Analyzing Wafer Bump Voids with X-ray Inspection," in which he disclosed an x-ray imaging technology said to detect and measure voids within solder bumps on chips. The paper also revealed software that determines component viability based on preset threshold values.
The event was sponsored by SMTA. Papers detailed leading-edge IC packaging and test technologies with special emphasis on 3D stacked packaging.
The x-ray inspection system detailed in Frank's paper converts 3D voids to measurable 2D images, enabling the system to calculate the ratio of the size of the void within a solder bump to the total mass of the ball. The system can also determine the largest linear distance between two points in the void and compare the result with the diameter of the ball.
The paper will soon be online in at smta.org.
Hangzhou Eastcom Cellular Phone Co. will purchase $20 million worth of SMT equipment and maintenance over the next three years, Autron Pte. said. Autron will also help manage Hangzhou's spare parts inventories.
The new center houses process R&D and remanufacturing facilities, spare parts, component engineering and demo lines.
With the refurbished equipment, the company also provides original documentation, genuine spare parts, software and component upgrade, and warranty and service support.
Engineers are trained at the original manufacturer's factories, Autron said.
The company estimates the market for refurbished equipment will reach $500 million in 2005.
In a statement, C. L Tan, group executive chairman, said ""We have spent the last 1½ years tediously building on our product and process knowledge, market research in the industry and working closely with customers to understand their concerns, fears and needs. The rebuilt equipment division is an important high margin growth engine of our solutions business model and we intend to dominate this space for long time to come."
Autron provides electronics assembly equipment and services including distribution services and manufacturing.
iSuppli forecasts worldwide semiconductor sales will hit $237.1 billion in 2005. The firm said last month that sales would grow 9.6% in 2005.
iSuppli cited lower sales forecasts for electronics equipment, which is expected to grow 6.2% in 2005, down from 10.1% this year.
The firm also cited growing chip stocks: excess inventories in the supply chain doubled last quarter, to $1.6 billion, iSuppli said.
2006 will mark the low point for IC sales, followed by a recovery in 2007 and 2008, iSuppli predicts.
ELK GROVE VILLAGE, IL, Dec. 7 -- SigmaTron International Inc. today reported net revenues increased to $27.9 million for the quarter ended Oct. 31. Net income was $1.3 million, down from $1.8 million a year ago.
SigmaTron had sales of $26.5 million in the year ago quarter.
First-half sales rose $1.5 million, to $52.9 million. Net income fell $800,000, to $2.3 million.
Sales were higher for telecommunications and appliances, the firm said.
Gary R. Fairhead, president and chief executive, said, "Pricing pressures, product life cycle issues and component pricing impacted our results."
The company operates plants in Elk Grove Village (Chicago); Las Vegas; Fremont, CA (SMT Unlimited); Acuna, Mexico; and Suzhou, China. The latter's sales rose in the quarter now employs 135 workers.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI, Dec. 7 -- MiQuest, a maker of electronics assemblies, is planning to expand its factory here to meet higher demand, according to a local news report.
According to the report, city officials are reviewing zoning ordinances in order to pave the way for the firm's expansion.
MiQuest currently employs 50 and could add 20 to 25 more if the city approves the zoning request, the report said.
The company hopes to begin construction "as soon as possible" and production will start early next year, MiQuest project manager Richard Tournier reportedly said.
NEW YORK -- China's Lenovo Group will buy IBM's PC business for $1.75 billion in cash and stock, according to several news reports and company sources.
With the acquisition, Lenovo would become the third-largest PC company in the world, with sales of $12 billion, said Lenovo chairman Liu Chuanzhihe.
IBM is currently the third largest maker of PCs, behind Dell (16.4%) and HP(13.9%). The merged company will have an 8% share of the global PC market.
Leveno will acquire a 81.1% stake with IBM holding 18.9%.
Stephen M. Ward, Jr., currently IBM senior vice president and general manager of IBM's Personal Systems Group, will serve as the chief executive of Lenovo when the deal closes. Yuanqing Yang, currently vice chairman, president and chief executive of Lenovo, will become chairman of Lenovo.
Lenovo, China's biggest computer maker, claiming a 27% share, is traded publicly on the Hong Kong exchange.
In a Dec. 8 research note, Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore said anticipated supplier consolidation by Lenovo could hurt Sanmina-SCI. DB estimates Sanmina-SCI generates about 20% of its revenue from building PC boards for IBM.
"We believe IBM-Lenovo will look to consolidate its supply base following the completion of the acquisition, creating downward pressure on margins [and] pricing across the PC supply chain," Whitmore wrote. He speculated that Sanmina-SCI would either see less volume and lower margins.
Sanmina-SCI could lose $50 million in annual operating profits if Lenovo were to end IBM's existing PC board supply deal.
Lenovo was founded in 1984 and was formerly known as Legend. It has a 2% share of the PC market, according to Gartner.
