Another round of EMS quarterly reports came out today, as LaBarge and SMTC provided their numbers. Now that the bulk of the major EMS companies have reported, the picture is pretty clear that first quarter revenues were up fairly broadly but profits took a hit.

This is unfortunate, of course, because the margin-sensitive EMS industry relies on leveraging higher sales to drive incremental profit gains.

Based on the consensus forecasts, expect second-quarter revenues to be generally flat, with pressure on margins because of higher component costs due to supply constraints.