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WALTHAM, MA – PCB East opened its one-day exhibition to an enthusiastic cross section of electronics industry professionals. PCB East had been away from its New England roots for a while, spending a few years in North Carolina and Illinois. The design and fab community in and around Route 128 welcomed PCB East back with strong support, making the one-day table top exhibition, that ran from 11 a.m. through 7 p.m. on Wednesday, a well-attended event.

LOS ALTOS, CA – Industrial & Instrument (I & I) global output is expected to drop 10.4% this year, compared to a 1.3% increase in 2008, says Henderson Ventures.

SANTA ANA, CA – TTM Technologies Inc. swung to a first-quarter profit, reporting net income of $1.4 million, compared to a net loss of $69.2 million the previous quarter. Year-over-year, net income plummeted 90% from $14.4 million.

SAN JOSE – Worldwide semiconductor sales rose 3.3% sequentially to $14.7 billion in March, the Semiconductor Industry Association reported today.

First quarter sales were down 29.9% from last year to $44 billion. Sales were down 15.7% from the fourth quarter.

However, the March gain over February gave a glint of hope that the trough has been reached and a recovery is underway.

“The modest sequential rebound in worldwide sales in March suggests that demand has stabilized somewhat, albeit at substantially lower levels than last year,” said SIA president George Scalise. “While all major product sectors showed month-on-month growth, there continues to be limited visibility in end-markets. There are some bright spots such as smartphones and netbook PCs, but there are no clear signs of early firming of demand in other major end-markets such as automotive, corporate information technology, and consumer electronics.

Sales in all geographic regions except Japan showed month-to-month gains. Sales in Japan were sharply lower, reflecting a drop in the country’s economic output. All geographic regions reported lower first-quarter sales compared to the same period of 2008.

“The global chip industry continues to reflect the influence of the worldwide economic slowdown,” Scalise said. “We expect economic stimulus measures in the U.S. combined with other countries will begin to impact sales as we enter 2010.”

SAN JOSE -- Flextronics reported fourth-quarter net sales fell 28% to $5.6 billion and adjusted net income dropped 90% to $21.7 million.

Adjusted operating income for the quarter was $50.6 million and the margin was 0.9%, down from $262.5 million and 3.4%, respectively, a year ago.

For the fiscal year ended March 31, net sales were $30.9 billion, up 11% from a year ago. Adjusted operating income was $811.2 million with an adjusted operating margin of 2.6%, compared to $887.2 million and 3.2% a year ago. Adjusted net income fell 19% to $605 million.

The company reiterated earlier plans to take pretax restructuring charges of $220 million to $250 million, $130 million to $150 million in cash, as part of an ongoing downsizing scheduled to last six months.

At quarter's end, Flextronics had cash and cash equivalents of $1.8 billion. The company generated $286 million of operating cash flow and $197 million of free cash flow during the quarter.

For the first quarter ending July 3, the world's second-largest EMS company expects sales in the range of $5 billion to $6 billion.

On a conference call with analysts Wednesday night, company executives said they are seeing stabilization across all market segments, but it stopped short of calling the current conditions a recovery. The firm said the mobile and infrastructure end-markets have been softer than expected due to weakness at a large customer in each segment (analysts said those customers are likely Sony-Ericsson and Nortel). Flextronics expects growth in the notebook, medical, smartphone and LCD TV segments in the coming quarters.

MELVILLE, NY – Park Electrochemical Corp. reported fourth-quarter net sales fell 41% from last year to $35.5 million. Fiscal-year net sales were $200 million, compared to $241.9 million in 2008.