ESPOO, FINLAND -- Aspocomp Oulu Oy and the headquarter operations of Aspocomp Group reported first-quarter sales down 36.5% year-over-year. For the quarter ended March 31, net sales were €3.3 million ($4.47 million).
  
In addition to operations in Finland, Aspocomp Group has a 20% stake in the joint venture Meadville Aspocomp (BVI) Holdings Limited. In late 2008, Meadville reduced head-count in Suzhou. In March 2009, the company started to re-hire at the Suzhou plant in response to improved market demand and in anticipation of the scheduled China 3G launch in May.

GHENT, BELGIUM – Ucamco reports that its front-end engineering throughput has increased up to 30%, following the launch of its new PCB CAM productivity service.
 
Based around advanced remote-access software, the service provides secure access to a customer’s workstation, no matter where it is located. The company’s software support engineers are able to observe and to record the complete data preparation process for several jobs. Based on UCAM software and industry best practices, a report is generated with suggested process changes and itemized timesavings.
 
New features can be downloaded to the customer’s workstation through the remote-access software, and online training is provided.
 
“Our reports quantify the specific benefits to be gained before the customer commits his cash,” says Filip Vermeire, head of software customer care. “The first audits we have done for customers have shown productivity increases up to 90% for specific operations and up to 30% overall.”