Printed Circuit Design & Fab - December 2008 - (Page 10)

AROUND thE world in BRIEF Altium Looks to India. The company has plans to open sales and marketing offices in Mumbai, Bangalore or New Delhi. It hopes to have the offices running by January 2009 and has begun looking for Indian investment partners. altium wants to increase its presence in both China and India within the next two to three years. With three offices in China already, the company expects similar growth in India because of the high demand for electronic innovative design products and embedded software. Copper Prices Continue to Fall. On October 15, copper prices fell to $5,000 per ton, marking a 7% decline in a single day. Copper foil prices fell 5% in early October and are predicted to decline 5% to 6% in November. Further drops are expected for December, according to industry sources. September saw copper prices at $7 ,000 per ton, on average, down 7% to 8% from august. Copper foil supplier Co-Tech is predicting a 5% to 6% decline in prices for November and as much as a 9% drop in December. asian copper clad laminate (CCl) makers, including Nan ya Plastics, Uniplus electronics and elite Material, cut their average selling prices by 5% to 10% in October. Stilwell Baker Opens Design Center. Stilwell Baker is opening a new 3,000-square-foot design center in Vancouver. It will be the firm’s core location for design for manufacturing and component engineering, the company said this week. The facility incorporates stateof-the-art workstations in a secure network environment with an emphasis on responsiveness and integrated communications. Chemcut Selects Partner for Indian Market. The company has awarded an exclusive agency agreement to KBr (India) laminates & Technology in India. KBr, based in Bangalore, has over 25 years of experience in the PCB Industry. The president, Mr. ramani, has been active in the IPCa acting as vice president of the trade organization and is currently serving as treasurer. KBr will handle Chemcut’s wet processing equipment promotion. additional KBr product lines include; laminate materials, flying probe testers and dry film. Cadence to Cut 12% of Global Workforce. Cadence Design Systems, Inc. will eliminate at least 625 full-time positions, representing 12% of its global employee base, plus a substantial number of contractors and consultants by the second half of fiscal 2009. The work force reduction is estimated to save the company $150 million annually. Cadence expects to record a restructuring charge of approximately $65 million to $70 million pretax, $48 million of which will be recorded in the third quarter of 2008. analyst report PC Growth to Halve in ‘09 SAN FRANCISCO – After strong shipment growth in 2008, PCs may be headed for a dip in 2009, a top Deutsche Bank analyst said today. The credit market and deteriorating macro outlook are the culprits, says Chris Whitmore. “We expect a difficult PC environment in 2009. We estimate industry-wide PC unit growth of 6% year-over-year and flat revenue growth,” Whitmore wrote in a recent research note today. Both figures are declines from this year, when unit growth was forecasted to be up 11.5% and revenues up 5%. “We expect the frozen credit market and deteriorating macro outlook to translate into weakening PC demand due to the highly discretionary nature of PC upgrades in developed markets, both consumer and corporate. In addition, we expect ASP pressure to accelerate in 2009 as a result of a mix of a downturn in consumer trading and incremental price competition, somewhat offset by more favorable commodity pricing.” Demand in emerging markets, which DB estimates have been responsible for roughly 70% of the industry’s growth this decade, could also slow materially. DB forecasts global GDP to grow 2% in 2009. The firm expects the lower GDP growth to show up in smaller corporate IT budgets and delayed PC upgrades. At the consumer level, higher unemployment and reduced household wealth could tamp down demand. TTM Q3 results SANTA ANA, CA – TTM Technologies, Inc. has released its third-quarter results. Net income reached $9.5 million, or $0.22 per diluted share. The company experienced net sales of $169 million, a 2.3% drop from the second-quarter result of $173 million. The gross margin for the third quarter was 19%, a 2.1% decline from the second-quarter. TTM posted a $15.5 million operating income, similar to the secondquarter figure of $19.1 million. The company also reported an unrealized loss of $579,000 on its $20.1 million holdings in the Reserve Primary Fund. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) were $22.2 million, 13.1% of net sales. This is a $2.3 million decline over second-quarter results. September pCB Orders Down 14.2% yoy BANNOCKBURN, IL – North American PCB shipments in September fell 3.1%, while orders decreased 14.2% year-over-year, IPC said. Year to date, shipments rose 4.5%, and orders were down 1.1%. Sequentially, combined shipments for September were up 3.8%; orders were up 13.3%. The bookto-bill ratio remained at 0.95. For the month, rigid PWB shipments were down 3.8% year-over-year, while orders were down 16.4% compared to September last year. Year to date, rigid PCB shipments were up 4.2%, and orders were down 0.8%. Sequentially, rigid PCB shipments increased 4.5% and orders increased 11%. The book-to-bill ratio moved up slightly to 0.96. Flex circuit shipments were up 9%, and orders were up 25.2% compared to September 2007. Year to date, flex circuit shipments were up 9%, and orders were down 5.3%. Sequentially, flex circuit shipments were down 4.7%, while orders increased 50.8%. The book-to-bill ratio improved to 0.94. In September, 86% of total PCB shipments reported were domestically produced. Domestic production accounted for 85% of rigid PCB and 90% of flex circuit shipments by those surveyed. IPC does not disclose the number of companies participating in the survey. DECEMBER 2008 10 printEd CirCuit dESign & fAB

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Printed Circuit Design & Fab - December 2008

Printed Circuit Design & Fab - December 2008 Contents Our Line Market Watch Around the World Happenings ROI Global Sourcing EMC for the Real World Interconnect Strategies On the Forefront Final Finish Forum Test and Inspection Electronic System Design Data Management 101 Designers Take on Technology Challenges in 2008 PCB Signal Integrity, Power Integrity and EMC Challenges What’s in a Name? Ad Index PCB Dielectric Materials for High-Speed Applications Off the Shelf Marketplace BGA Bulletin

Printed Circuit Design & Fab - December 2008

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