ICU Medical(San Clemente, California), a manufacturer of medical connectors and custom intravenous systems, reported that it has decided to maintain certain molding and automated assembly production operations at its newly acquired Salt Lake City plant and to move the molding and automated assembly operations currently conducted at ICU’s plants in San Clemente to the Salt Lake City plant.

The decision to maintain production in Salt Lake City represents a change from ICU Medical’s original plans and was based on an assessment that relocation cost and operating cost comparisons favored the Salt Lake City production location. Manual assembly operations in Salt Lake City will still be moved to other ICU Medical facilities or other lower-cost locations over the next several years, the company said.

ICU Medical acquired the Salt Lake City plant from Hospira (Lake Forest, Illinois) on May 1, along with related capital equipment and certain inventories, and entered into a 20-year agreement to manufacture for Hospira substantially all the products that Hospira had produced at the plant.

LCD monitors gaining ground

Although analog-based cathode-ray tube (CRT) medical display monitors dominated the market until recently due to favorable pricing and economies of scale, liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors are fast gaining ground over them, according to new analysis from Frost & Sullivan (Palo Alto, California).

Compared to CRT displays, high-resolution LCD monitors are far more sophisticated and guarantee radiologists the highest level of differentiation in diagnostic procedures, Frost & Sullivan said.

The report, “U.S. Medical Display Monitor Markets,” reveals that revenue in this industry totaled $281.1 million in 2004 and can reach $602.9 million in 2011.