The nation’s leading factory index in August contracted for the first time in three years as new orders, production and employment all fell below 50 — the threshold between growth and contraction. The Institute for Supply Management’s PMI dropped to 49.1 percent last month, its lowest reading since 2016. Business confidence has also declined as…
U.S. factory activity declined for the fourth straight month in July as weakening demand and ongoing trade anxiety weighed on manufacturers. The nation’s leading factory index, the PMI, fell to its lowest point since 2016, dropping by 0.5 percent to a level of 51.2. “This is the fourth straight month of PMI decline without any…
DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce, reports that following the Toshiba outage in mid-June, the Japanese government announced that it will be controlling South Korea-bound exports of three key materials used in the manufacturing of semiconductors, smartphones and panels, causing module manufacturers in the memory industry downstream to give higher quotes. However, since DRAM and NAND Flash…
Growth in U.S. manufacturing activity in May slowed to its weakest pace in more than two years as purchasing managers raised concerns about a trade war between the U.S. and China, according to the Institute for Supply Management. The ISM’s monthly factory index, the PMI, registered 52.1 percent in May, a 0.7 percent decrease from…
Editor’s Note: This is the second of two articles examining the impact of tariffs — positive and negative–on the electronics industry. For political pundits, the United States government’s tariff strategy is about political leverage. For electronics OEMs, however, tariffs are about business. “As a United States patron, I look at it through the lens of…
A gauge of U.S. factory activity topped estimates in March, rebounding from a two-year low on strength in employment, new orders and manufacturing production. The Institute for Supply Management’s PMI reached 55.3 percent in March, a 1.1 percent increase from the prior month. Any number above 50 indicates manufacturing expansion. March made up for ground…
The combined DRAM and NAND memory markets experienced a period of extraordinary growth over the past several years, driven by important megatrends including mobility, cloud computing, AI (Artificial Intelligence), and IoT (Internet of Things). Without a doubt, these megatrends have had a significant impact on the semiconductor industry, especially the memory markets. Yole Développement (Yole)…
The Electronic Components Industry Association (ECIA) has reported that global sales of capacitors, inductors, resistors and other passive components increased by 25.2 percent in calendar 2018. Unit shipments of these devices grew by 16.7 percent to 7.4 trillion. Last year was marked by severe shortages in passive components, particularly certain types of capacitors. Demand is…
PC and server DRAM prices have plummeted by nearly 30 percent so far in the first quarter of 2019, according to DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce. This is a deeper plunge than the projected drop of 25 percent expected last month and is the sharpest tumble since 2011. At the same time, most contracts have transitioned…
U.S. manufacturers may be facing a bumpy ride in Q1 as the nation’s factory activity cooled in February. New orders, production and employment all declined from January levels, according to the Institute for Supply Management (ISM), and the PMI dropped 2.4 percentage points to 54.2 percent. As long as the PMI remains above 50, the manufacturing industry continues to expand. “We are still in the…