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As the company continues to expand in both established and emerging electronics manufacturing regions, the electronics group of Henkel announced a new partnership to extend its presence in South Africa, signing on PEM Technologies to represent its line of Loctite brand electronics adhesives in the growing South African region.Though it is not often considered a major electronics manufacturing locale, South Africa is, in fact, one of the fastest growing regions for certain sectors within the electronics production market. Automotive, military/aerospace and contract manufacturing are all seeing significant growth rates and Henkel anticipates that this will only continue for the foreseeable future.\n\n"Recently, we have seen major manufacturers in automotive and in military/aerospace either transfer production from Europe to South Africa or set up additional, dedicated South African production sites," comments Richard Boyle, Regional Technical Service Manager for Henkel. "And, growth in the contract manufacturing sector--particularly for telecom, IT and entertainment products--is even more rapid and represents the largest area of expansion for Henkel," Boyle continues. "Establishing a partnership with a strong regional distributor like PEM Technologies is critical to our strategy for growth in this promising region." Steve Eglinton, Managing Director of PEM, is confident the company's relationship with Henkel will only serve to further enable customers' competitiveness. "Without question, Loctite is the leading brand of adhesives for electronics manufacturing and we are very enthusiastic about \nrepresenting Henkel materials throughout South Africa," says Eglinton. "Henkel's philosophy of supporting the customer through top-notch applications expertise, technical service and materials-based productivity enhancing tools is completely in line with PEM's approach. With Henkel's leading materials technologies, we look forward to helping customer

NEC Electronics America Inc. introduced to the Americas twenty-two new 16-bit All Flash microcontrollers (MCUs) for compact, low-power, battery-operated, and sensor-enabled systems. Based on NEC Electronics' high-performance 16-bit 78K0R CPU core, the new 78K0R/Kx3-L MCUs offer very low power consumption to extend battery life, and more on-chip integration to help reduce the size and cost of battery-driven and sensor-enabled systems, such as fire and security alarms, meters, industrial sensors, anti-shake digital cameras, handheld medical diagnostics devices, and data-logging and point-of-sale terminals. In addition to low power consumption, the new lineup offers high-performance on-chip oscillators, built-in circuits for sensor functions, and extended system operating time. "As environmental awareness has grown, energy-saving systems have become particularly reliant on MCU technology," said Jim Trent, Vice President, Multipurpose Microcontroller and Automotive Group, NEC Electronics America. "Over the past several years, NEC Electronics has delivered many ultra-low-power 8- and 32-bit MCUs that have met the demand for energy efficiency. With the introduction of the new 78K0R/Kx3-L devices, however, NEC Electronics is now delivering the benefits of energy efficiency in its 16-bit products."

Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc (K&S) has announced that the company has entered into definitive agreements to acquire substantially all of the assets of Orthodyne Electronics Corporation, a supplier of wedge bonders, and sell the K&S wire business unit to WC Heraeus GmbH, a precious metals and technology group. Under the terms of the Orthodyne agreement, K&S will fund the acquisition of Orthodyne with approximately 7.1 million shares of K&S common stock, plus $80 million in cash. If the transaction is not consummated by October 31, 2008, the purchase price will be approximately 19.6 million shares of K&S common stock and no cash. The deal includes possible earn-out consideration up to an additional $40 million in cash if certain financial objectives are met by Orthodyne over the next three years. The closing of the transaction, which is expected within approximately 60 days, is subject to certain working capital adjustments and closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. "The acquisition of Orthodyne is in line with our stated strategy and positions K&S to capitalize on our strengths in equipment manufacturing and further cement our position as the leading supplier of interconnect solutions," commented Scott Kulicke, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of K&S. "Orthodyne is a fast growing, profitable market leader and provides us with deeper penetration into the discrete side of the semiconductor market, particularly in the attractive power management and hybrid module markets."

The current growth in the local and international engineering, civils and construction markets is expected to continue despite the current volatility experi- enced in world economic markets, reports the South African Association of Consulting Engineers (Saace). Saace CEO Graham Pirie says that even though the local infrastructure roll-out programme and the infrastructure investments from emerging markets such as China were initiated before the period of global market volatility, infrastructure builds cannot be halted as they are vital to the economic growth of countries. "Government's commitment of R500-bil-lion, in addition to the money invested in the 2010 FIFA World Cup stadiums, to be spent over three years, means that 2010 is a small component of a larger investment that government is encouraging," says Pirie. He comments that the infrastructure roll-out programme is necessary, given the 20-year infrastructure investment backlog that South Africa needs to resolve. Pirie says that events hosted in the country since 1994 have encouraged infrastructure reinvestment. "Prior to 1994, South Africa didn't host sporting or political events that would draw an influx of tourists into the country, so the need for infrastructure reinvestment was minimal. "From 1994, with the 1995 rugby World Cup looming, government got serious about resolving this. Certain sporting events, such as the 1995 rugby World Cup, the 2003 cricket World Cup and the 2010 soccer World Cup, focus the right amount of attention on infras- tructure reinvestment at the right time," says Pirie

Mainstream Renewable Power, a renewable energy company led by Airtricity founder Eddie O'Connor, has announced the successful closing of a €40 million [US $59.6 million] equity fundraising in which Barclays Capital have invested €20 million [US $29.8 million] for a 14.6% stake in the company. The board, management and staff of Mainstream, as well as close associates of the company, have invested an additional €20 million [US $29.8 million]. Together with the initial seed capital of €32 million [US $47.75 million], this brings the total equity raised to date to €72 million [US $107.43 million]. The company is also planning a major fundraiser later this year, with Barclays Capital committing to invest a further substantial amount at that stage. As part of the deal, Mark Brown, head of Barclays Capital Commodities Principal Investment team has been appointed to the board of Mainstream. The money will be used to fund the company's international expansion plans across Europe, North and South America and Australia and will be used to secure the supply of turbines to be delivered in 2009, 2010 and 2011. In June, Mainstream announced its plans to build an initial pipeline of 240 megawatts of projects in Chile with its partner Andes Energy.

Johnson Controls, a global leader in building efficiency, announced the new LX Series of air conditioners and heat pumps by York, its leading air conditioning, heating, refrigeration, and ventilating company. They feature a MicroChannel coil with enhanced heat transfer characteristics, enabling them to achieve the desired performance levels with less coil surface area than competitive condensers and up to 50 percent less refrigerant. The units are available with environmentally friendly R-410A refrigerant as well as R-22. 14.5 SEER LX Series air conditioners use a compressor blanket and swept-wing fan blade for quieter operation. 15+ SEER can be achieved when the air conditioner is matched with a variable-speed air handler or gas furnace. A fully louvered steel coil guard, corner posts and a polymer mesh protect the condensing coils from damage. The unit's heavy-duty cabinet is made of powder-painted steel that resists corrosion and rust creep.\n\n\n\n\nIn addition, the MicroChannel coil offers better galvanic corrosion resistance than conventional coils. In testing, the coil withstood 7,000 hours of salt spray with a higher success rate than conventional coils at just 1,000 hours, making the units particularly desirable for seacoast applications, reveals the company's press release.\n\n

Already the world's deepest copper and zinc mine, the latest project will extend the mining zone at Mine D from 9,100 feet to 9,500 feet, improving the production profile from the mine through the addition of 3.4 million tonnes of ore to the mining plan and extending the mine life by one year to 2017.

LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK) said Monday it expects to generate between $2.8 billion and $3 billion in revenue and ship between 1.45 gigawatts and 1.55 gigawatts of silicon wafers in 2009. The Chinese company also said its wafer manufacturing plant has reached 1 gigawatt of annual capacity. It's a noteworthy milestone on the way to production capacity targets of 1.2 gigawatts by the end of the year, 2.2 gigawatts by the end of 2009 and 3.2 gigawatts by 2010 that the company announced earlier this month. LDK shares rose more than 8 percent to reach $49.63 per share in recent trading. The wafer maker's stock has climbed since it posted blockbuster second-quarter earnings on Aug. 11. LDK's net income grew more than fivefold year-over-year to reach $149.5 million, or $1.29 per share. Second-quarter sales more than quadrupled to $441.7 million from $99.1 million from the year-ago period (see LDK 2Q Profit Triples, Margin Falls). Strong demand for its wafers has prompted the company to expand its production capacity quickly. LDK also plans to start making it own polysilicon, in addition to buying the raw material for making the wafers. Production at LDK's first polysilicon plant is expected to begin soon and produce between 100 metric tons and 350 metric tons by December. The company is also building a second plant (see LDK Silicon Confirms Plant Is on Track). LDK CEO Xiaofeng Peng told analysts two weeks ago that the company had a backlog of more than 12 gigawatts of wafer orders. LDK expects to generate between $1.65 billion and $1.75 billion in revenue and ship between 750 megawatts and 770 megawatts of wafers for the whole of 2008.

China will begin subsidizing the production of wind power turbines, according to an announcement made last Friday. The subsidy will only be available to Chinese majority-owned turbine manufacturers, who will be eligible to receive $88 per kilowatt for the first 50 units capable of generating at least 1.5 megawatts of power. In addition, the subsidy can only be used for research and development. This is the first Chinese subsidy specifically focusing on the wind power industry and it is meant to make Chinese companies more competitive with turbine makers like GE (NYSE: GE) in the U.S., Vestas Wind Systems (VWS.CO) in the Netherlands and India's Suzlon (SUZL.BO).

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK, September 2, 2008. The Danish Ministry for Climate and Energy says a new 400 MW offshore wind farm will be built by 2012. The wind farm comes in addition to the 200 MW Rødsand II (online from 2011) and 200 MW Horns Rev II (online from 2009), and will be built between Anholt and Djursland in the Kattegat Sea between Denmark and Sweden. The location was chosen due to the possibility of connecting the wind farm more or less directly to the existing grid, which means the windmills can be put up quicker. Depending on the capacity of the windmills that will be chosen, the wind farm will have 100-175 wind mills.

Mueller Industries, Inc. has announced its sales results for 2008. Net income in 2008 amounted to US$ 80.8 million, compared with US$ 115.5 million realised in 2007. Net income in Q4 2008 reached US$ 7.8 million compared to US$ 28.8 million in the same period in 2007. The company attributed the sharp contraction in its Q4 income mainly to weak shipments and the lower average cost of copper. The plumbing and refrigeration segment has been hit by slowing demand and higher per unit conversion costs on lower production volumes. In addition, European copper tube activities were interrupted for approximately four weeks due to a fire. In response to the ongoing economic crisis, the company's strategy for 2009 is to readjust operations and reduce costs.

Scientists from MIT have grown thin, pure and dense carbon nanotubes that in combination with additives can be used as electrodes to store a higher amount of capacity in batteries and super capacitors.

Using three different methods of calculating market potential, results for residential fire sprinkler installations in the United States ranged from $2.9 billion to $3.2 billion annually. Further, four types of labor were analyzed to project the number of additional positions needed as residential fire sprinkler requirements are adopted across the country. "There's no question that the recent passing of residential fire sprinkler requirements to the International Residential Code will change the industry in a breath and timeline never experienced before,"

Toyota has just announced that as from 2009 shall make available to the public two new hybrid models, in addition to the new version of the Prius.

NEW DELHI: India has surpassed the US to to have the world's second largest wireless network in the world after China with the addition of 10.16 million wireless subscribers at the end of March.

According to data released by the Japanese Electric Wire and Cable Makers' Association, wire and cable sales in FY2008 plunged to 759,368 tonnes compared to 856,151 in FY2007. This represents a 11.3% y-o-y decline, reaching the lowest level since 1976. In addition, copper and copper alloy semis, including sheets and tubes, experienced a record y-o-y decrease in March, the lowest in more than 34 years. The Japan Copper and Brass Association reported that production of copper and copper alloy semis in March shrunk by 60% y-o-y to 34,440 tonnes. For the year ended 31st March, output fell by 19% y-o-y to 806,927 tonnes, the lowest since 1982.

That "evidence" relates to an article published by The Australian on May 28 which stated, "In Japan, the world's biggest importer of rare-earth metals, more than 10,000 tonnes per year about a fifth of the country's total annual consumption are thought to enter the country through a thriving black import network without which Japan would already be in a severe supply crisis, a senior government official said." We believe a black market exists, in this particular case, because of several actions taken by the Chinese government (by the way, the RE (rare earths) black market in Japan receives its supply from China). The biggest reason a black market exists however, relates to mining quotas and export restrictions. In addition, China has taken an active international M&A stance to make strategic investments.

According to Antaike, Chinese refined copper production in November amounted to 405,257t. For the 11 months to November the figure was 3,778,095t, an increase of 8% y-o-y. Chinese copper semis production in November reached 221,091t; for the year to November copper semis output totalled 2,432,149t, up by 17% compared with the same period in 2008. In addition, the customs office reported that refined copper imports in November increased by 15% m-o-m to 194,388t.

According to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, the home appliances 'trade in' policy realized RMB121.1B of sales income in 2010. Sales income and sales volume amounted to RMB16.6B and 3.6 million sets respectively in Q4 2010. Value was up by 142.7% and volume 147.7% from the same period a year ago. A joint programme of the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Finance, and Ministry of Environmental Protection stated that effective from June 2010, the policy would be launched in 19 additional provinces and cities, in addition to the existing nine. The time period of the policy was extended to the end of 2011. Home appliances covered by the programme include television sets, refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners and computers.

Hitachi Cable Ltd., has set out its new medium-term management plan known as the Renewed Plan "BRIDGE" with additional management measures. The company said under the new plan, key measures for business structure reforms included; the consolidation of its domestic sales companies, regional offices and branch offices, with the consolidated company taking operational control of all its existing manufacturing companies; the withdrawal from the optical submarines cable business, restructuring of its telecommunications cable business, review of packaging materials operations and a review of its copper tubes business; consolidations and eliminations of group companies in southeast Asia and consolidation of group companies in Europe and North America by country. This is in addition to a reduction in staff at domestic companies which is expected to involve some 1200 staff. The company will also implement measures to reduce fixed expenses. This includes a review of the company's pension system, an operational review of employee facilities including company dormitories, company housing, etc., and the sale of some of these facilities. The Hitachi Group aims to boost sales in priority target areas as a percentage of net sales from 55% in fiscal 2011 to 65% in fiscal 2016.