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Strategies & Market Trends : Electronic Contract Manufacture (ECM) Sector -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: patroller who wrote (1035)	12/27/1997 7:37:00 PM
From: Creditman	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 2542

I don't catch your drift, Patroller. Here's how it works: Boards are complex as Hell to build and the testing equipment can cost $1 Million per machine. You need all kinds of chemists and physicists, engineers on staff, etc. So Jabil for example does not build boards ... they use Hadco, I think... among others like PGTZ. Sometimes OEMs use the PCBs I just mentioned to assist the OEMs design and build small, test quantities of their products... prototypes. We call those "prototype shops". The product goes to the assemblers when it is time for production sized runs. Some PCBs like PGTZ are heavily into design. They design the product which puts them in better position to get the work later. Several PCBs like Hadco have Asian or Mexican (like DIIG) subsidiaries to do real large production runs of boards. Of course assemblers also have subsidiarieas in low cost, low tax places. Some companies are sort of Hybrids. DIIG owns Multek which is a hi-tech, fast turn prototype PCB. Sanmina, Altron and a few others do assembly of "backpanels" ..very complex. expensive boards. As far as I can tell they are all profitable now as business is better than ever. CMCI specializing in communication assembly, DIIG, PGTZ ... all these companies are operating at or near capacity which is a good way to make money in manufacturing. I don't think you can miss right now, invest in any or all of them, .Butremember, PCBs and assemblers are different animals although the hybrids blur the line a little.