Printed Circuit Design & Fab Online Magazine - Fab News

Fab News

Details: Written by Staff; Category: Fab News; Published: 18 November 2008

MELVILLE, NY -- Park Electrochemical Corp. announced a workforce reduction at its Neltec, Inc. electronic materials business unit located in Tempe, Arizona. The number of jobs being cut was not disclosed.

In September, Park also made an unspecified number of cuts to the Nelco Products business unit.

As a result of the Neltec cuts the company anticipates a Q3 charge of less than $100,000 for employment termination benefits for the company’s current fiscal year ending March 1, 2009.

Details: Written by Staff; Category: Fab News; Published: 17 November 2008

YAVNE, ISRAEL – Orbotech reported a third-quarter net loss of $43.1 million on revenues of $94.8 million. It also announced plans to drop out of the PCB assembly AOI equipment business and reduce its workforce by 15%.

Details: Written by Staff; Category: Fab News; Published: 14 November 2008

TAIPEI, TAIWAN– HannStar Board and Gold Circuit Electronics (GCE) have decided to curtail their expansion projects set for 2009. Sources at the companies report the decision comes after poor order visibility.
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Details: Written by Administrator; Category: Fab News; Published: 13 November 2008

HERTFORD, UK – UK-based PWB fabricator Daleba Electronics recently laid off seven workers as part of a corporate restructuring, the company said today.

The firm is set to open a 2,000-sq.-ft. office in Shenzhen, providing a base for the engineering, purchasing, logistics and quality assurance.

Daleba builds boards in the UK and also distributes boards built in China.

TAIPEI, TAIWAN– The global demand for handsets remains low, and Taiwan’s top four makers of printed circuit boards (PCBs) for handsets remain pessimistic about fourth-quarter sales.

Unimicron Technology Corporation saw sales revenue fall 3.62% for the month. Shipments began to cool at the start of the third quarter, and the company isn’t expecting much of an improvement during the fourth quarter.

Smartphones have influenced the sale of rigid flex boards, though. Unimicron has increased sales to over NT$200 million (US$6.05 million). Demand is predicted to stay strong during the fourth quarter.

Unitech Printed Circuit Board Corporation reported sales revenue of NT$921 million (US$27.8 million) for October. This marks an increase of 11.73% from the previous month. The company has experienced a slowdown in shipments of PCBs for mobile phones, not including smartphones. Fourth-quarter sales are predicted to remain sluggish.

Wus Printed Circuit Company reported sales revenue at NT$551 million (US$16.6 million), down 32.68% from September. The company is not forecasting an improvement in the fourth quarter.

Compeq Manufacturing Company did report revenue of NT$2.981 billion (US$90.2 million), up 10.95% from September. Despite the marked improvement, Compeq remains conservative with fourth-quarter predictions.

CRANBURY, NJ and ATKINSON, NH– BETZ & Company plans to combine its manufacturers’ sales representative operations with those at Atkinson-based Cogent Manufacturing Solutions. The merger will broaden Cogent’s product line and expand its markets in the Eastern US and Eastern Canada.

Eventually, Richard Betz hopes the partnership will allow for his eventual retirement. “I am impressed with Cogent’s grasp of the printed circuit fabrication market and am confident that they will do a superb job presenting our principle products not only to the PC fabrication market, but also go the photochemical machining, sign and specialty industries,” explains Betz.