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34 SMT007 MAGAZINE I SEPTEMBER 2026 What is the opportunity for Indium Corpo- ration to bringmanufacturing closer to the customers who use it? The Guadalajara site helps Indium in two important ways: First, our growth has been very healthy in the past five to 10 years, so we needed more capacity in the Americas. Second, Mexico is growing faster than other regions in the Americas, and we want to serve the Mexican market with low freight costs and responsive supply. Solder paste is perishable, and generally, you need to use overnight air transportation to deliver the product. In Guadalajara, we're very close to a significant proportion of our customers, and we can deliver same-day or next-day at a very low cost, saving the customer a significant amount of money. Why are you keeping your product list small to begin with? Is this in response to the type of prod- uct most often used in Mexico, and does it mean that production can be much more focused for the Mexican market? Indium makes a broad range of alloys, probably broader than any other company, serving a variety of markets. However, the market in Mexico is primarily SAC305 and low-silver alloys, so that will be the focus of our initial offerings. These are the high- demand products the Mexican market requires. Is the Guadalajara facility limited to just production? Yes, it's a focused manufacturing site, although we will conduct some customer meetings and inside sales there as well. Will you be manufacturing low-silver solder there? Demand for low-silver products is accelerating. Since the second half of 2025, silver prices have increased dramatically, prompting manufacturers to seek lower-cost alternatives to SAC305, which contains 3% silver. Reducing silver content can significantly lower material costs; however, it can also reduce thermal cycling reliability. PCB assemblers must therefore carefully balance cost savings with the reliability requirements of the intended end-use application to come up with the optimal solution. Not all applications can switch to a low-silver option, but many are completely suitable and meet all end-use requirements for thermal cycling, etc. There is a variety of low-silver products depending upon the appli- cation and the tolerance for reduced thermal cycling. Indium offers a broad range of solutions that address the full range of end use requirements. There is a strong presence for automotive in the Mexican assembly market. How does this impact Indium Corporation's product offerings and what it makes at the new Guadalajara site? The Mexican market is strongly focused on the automotive industry for a full range of applications. Under-the-hood applications like ECU, TCM, PCM, and ADAS now require even higher reliability than you can achieve with the SAC305 alloy. These applications lend themselves to high reliability alloys, so that will be our focus in Guadalajara, too. However, a range of in-cabin and LED automotive applications offer excellent opportunities to explore low-silver alternatives and take cost out. They're high-volume, cost-sensitive applications, and low- silver comes into play there. Many consumer products are manufactured in Mexico, especially white goods such as refrigera- tors, ovens, washers, and dryers, where the thermal cycling requirements aren't as stringent. In fact, there are many consumer-based applications used in controlled temperature environments that lend themselves to low-silver alloys. What are some of the big drivers in the market right now, both in Mexico and globally? The growth of AI servers is accelerating dramati- cally in Mexico and around the world. These appli- cations present unique manufacturing challenges because they use increasingly large BGAs. While 50 mm x 50 mm packages are now common, newer designs can exceed 100 mm x 100 mm. Reflowing these large components creates significant chal- lenges, in particular, high levels of warpage that can Chris Bastecki