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.