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SEPTEMBER 2026 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 45 disruptions and this hyper-volatility in trade and tariffs. It's hard to do business planning when poli- cies are unpredictable, but overall, it has had the desired effect: Companies are expanding into the U.S. in part to mitigate the risks associated with import tariffs. Fortunately, we're a large organization with facto- ries located in China and Korea, and soon in India. That enables manufacturing diversity, allowing us to ship from whichever country offers the most favor- able trade environment with the U.S. For example, during the first administration under Trump, we were able to divert our shipments into the U.S. from Korea rather than China. We've continued to ship primarily to the U.S. from our factory in Korea to avoid the significant tariffs imposed on Chinese- manufactured equipment. The 2026 SMTA Guadalajara Expo & Tech Forum is October 7–8. What will Heller's presence be like there? SMTA Guadalajara is like the APEX EXPO for Mexico and has emerged as a key show. Heller will be there in force and exhibiting equipment. Because of the growth of the industry in Mexico, we are investing pretty heavily in infrastructure there. We want our partners and customers to know that Heller is ready to scale with them. We are demonstrating that through investment in infra- structure and people. We've added a demo center in Guadalajara with equipment to provide trials and training. We're holding seminars on advanced tech- nology at our Guadalajara site as well. Recently, we held an overview of formic acid reflow technology. This very advanced process is not yet used in Mexico, but it is used worldwide in more advanced power electronics. The message I want to bring to the Mexican market is that Heller is investing for the long term. We provide direct service and support, direct sales and logistics support, and thermal solutions not only for standard applications but also for highly customized ones. I like to emphasize that Heller has more than 160 engineers globally to meet the challenges of any new application or process that customers and partners bring to us. We can usually find them a solution. What is the sentiment in Mexico right now? Two years ago, we saw enthusiasm because the infrastructure was in place to accept as much EV business as they could get. Last year, it was more cautious when the EV business didn't come through as expected. Next year, the big topic will be AI data center expan- sions and the amount of business and manufacturing capacity they're driving in Mexico. There will be some cautious sentiment, but the market data indica- tors are all very positive, suggesting this isn't a blip. We're very much at the beginning; this will be the start of a continuous buildout of capacity and manu- facturing. There are shortages of memory chips and many challenges in processing some of the larger rack-system boards used in this cloud build-out. Mexico has participated quite substantially in this, and I think much of the discussion at the show will focus on how to solve these challenges more on a technological basis. I don't think the focus will be on whether the business will be sustainable. In that respect, it will be a great show. I like having those technology discussions because, at Heller, we're always innovating. We have new projects to address these upcoming challenges, and we have shared roadmaps with our OEM partners that subcontractors and Tier 1 EMS companies will be very interested in learning about at the show. Tell me more about the work Heller has been doing with Seho. How will it be presented in Guadalajara? Seho offers selective and wave soldering systems, which are highly complementary to our more conven- tional standard reflow and other applications. Heller and Seho have entered into a global collaboration. Customers are looking for total solutions, making this collaboration synergistic and complementary. We share resources in both sales and service. We are also manufacturing a dedicated platform for them at our Shanghai facility, providing a more cost-competi- tive solution for the Asian market. We've been joining forces on trade shows. At APEX EXPO, we co-exhibited with Seho and will continue to do so at SMTA Guadalajara. Heller is growing, we are investing in Mexico, and we're committed to being the partner that customers can trust to scale with them as they grow. Paul, thanks so much, and good luck in Guadalajara. SMT007