The global coronavirus has upended many of the metrics used to forecast supply, demand, economic activity and financial stability. Two electronics associations – the IPC and ECIA – report electronics markets are recovering, but forward momentum is decelerating. “The economy improved over the last month, but it is clear that momentum is slowing and future…
The Coronavirus / Covid-19 pandemic has reached every corner of the world and significantly disrupted markets and supply chains in every country. The extreme uncertainty and volatility associated with this crisis as created a need for visibility on how this crisis is impacting the electronics components industry and the supply chain. In order to provide…
As the spread of the coronavirus outbreak continues on a meteoric rise, and its toll on human health mounts, the economic effects of the crisis are lining up. Businesses are tasked with several issues to address – guaranteeing the safety of their workers, yet ascertaining operational viability which is now coming under strain given the…
Aspencore Media, the publishing house that owns EPSNews and EE Times, has launched a Special Project, “Outbreak in Wuhan,” seeking to define the global impact of the deadly virus in the electronic industry. Since the outbreak of the coronavirus, global media attention has focused on Wuhan. Knowing the region and its history helps us understand…
Foreign direct investment (FDI) is often viewed through the same lens as on-shoring or re-shoring. From a nation’s perspective, these activities retain or add jobs. FDI is becoming more important – and more global – to businesses, according to The 2019 A.T. Kearney Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Confidence Index. Almost four-fifths of respondents expect to increase…
An already-tight electronics supply chain will get squeezed even more thanks to the negative effects of Hurricane Harvey. Even as a second hurricane was bearing down on the U.S., domestic manufacturers were preparing for prices and deliveries to be significantly impacted over the next three months. Hurricane Harvey struck a significant blow to the Houston,…
With 17 out of 18 U.S. manufacturing industries expanding in March, domestic producers closed the first quarter of 2017 on a high note. Although the Institute for Supply Management’s leading index, the PMI, cooled a bit from February – a decrease of 0.5 percent to 57.2 — the industry expanded in March for the seventh consecutive…
Faith in the U.S. economy among midsized U.S. industrial manufacturers has “absolutely skyrocketed” compared with last year, as 74 percent of financial executives polled by the buying group Prime Advantage are more optimistic than they were at this time a year ago. This 48-point catapult over 2016 is by far the largest increase for this…
While the mantra of the high-tech industry is constant change, the types of changes our industry has been facing just this month are far outside the norm. The burning business and industry questions are not about volatile market cycles but what happens when ideology meets manufacturing reality along the global supply chain. There are, to…
Purchasing and supply management executives expect they’ll be buying more from their suppliers next year as the U.S. economy continues the recovery that began in 2009. More than two-thirds – 67 percent — of manufacturing respondents to the Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) Semiannual Economic Forecast expect their 2017 revenue will exceed 2016’s. The ISM’s…