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TAIWAN–The North American market experienced a larger shipment growth for flexible PCBs over rigid PCBs, according to a recent report from IPC, and according to DigiTimes, the trend is extending into Taiwan. Unimicron Technology and Compeq Manufacturing are predicting sales of handset PCBs to increase, and HannStar Board showed record July sales for notebook PCBs. HannStar expects September sales to continue to climb. Due to the high demand for the Apple’s Smartphone and High Tech Computer (HTC), industry insiders are predicting FPCB sales in Taiwan to see anywhere from 15% to 50% third-quarter sequential growth.

Not everyone is seeing a climb, though. Because of lackluster shipment volumes for notebook PCBs, Gold Circuit Electronics had to adjust their third-quarter sales target from 20%-25% down to 10%-15%.

TAIWAN – Foxconn International’s first-half net profit was $142.2 million, down 56% year-over-year, as a result of higher operating costs, product changes and increased investment spending.

The cellphone maker reported its first-half revenue rose to $4.79 billion, up 4.4% compared to the year-ago period.

Foxconn previously predicted it gross profit margin would fall this year because of a price war, higher costs and corporate taxes.

The company is building a massive campus outside of Juarez, Mexico, that will come online in 2009.

HELSINKI – The research firm, Gartner, predicts sales growth in the mobile phone market will slow this year due to several factors including the shaky global economy, increased competition, and the weak US dollar. Manufacturers will continue to infiltrate emerging markets as a means to increase sales. Although sales in Western Europe, a major region for phone makers, are expected to be similar to last year’s level, Gartner predicts a 5% decline in global market growth over 2007 figures.

In the second-quarter, 304.7 million mobile phones were sold globally with emerging markets pushing sales up 11.8% from last year. Nokia experienced the largest gains with its market share increasing to 39.5%, up from 36.7% the previous year.

HERNDON, VA – An iNEMI two-day summit will focus on the challenges of creating a more sustainable industry. The goal of this summit, scheduled for Sept. 22 and 23 in Schaumburg, IL, is to define specific actions for the electronics industry and organize programs to execute these actions.

VIETNAM– Since May, the electronics market has seen a 30%–50% decrease in electronic goods including mobile phones, IT items and engineering products. The slowdown can be attributed to fluctuations within the market–a decrease in consumer spending and a record-high exchange rate on the US dollar. In addition, there are import contracts that cannot be cancelled that have resulted in stockpiles of higher-priced, imported electronics currently in low demand.

SAN JOSE – A projected decline in world semiconductor fab equipment spending of 20% is expected for 2008, but a rebound of more than 20% in spending is expected in 2009, driven by more than 70 fab projects, says SEMI.

In 2008, 300-mm projects make up about 90% of all fab equipment spending, while about 69% of all equipment spending is for 65-nm and below technology nodes, according to the association.

Overall annual semiconductor fab capacity this year is expected to be about 16 million wafers, a growth rate of just 9% compared to 17% capacity growth in 2007. In 2009, capacity is expected to grow about 10%.

Memory makes up the largest share of total semiconductor fab capacity, with a 40% share in 2008, followed by foundries with more than 20%, and logic with 15%.

In 2009, memory will slightly increase its share to 42%, while foundries and logic are forecasted to remain at about the same share levels, says SEMI.

There have been dramatic changes in spending on fab construction projects. Many projects have been delayed during 2008 (with a 38% decline in construction spending year-over-year), but 2009 will show more than 50% growth in construction spending when many of the pushed out projects begin.

Over most of the past decade, Japan has spent the largest share of money on fabs equipping. This will change in 2009, with Taiwan and S. Korea exceeding Japan in fab equipment and construction spending. By 2009, the share in total spending throughout the Asia Pacific region (excluding Japan) will rise to more than 67% (from 50% in 2006). In 2008, only four semiconductor companies spent more than $1.5 billion. In 2009, twice as many will spend at that level, says SEMI.