"A number of “Pb-free” products have been introduced by, for example, Panasonic, Toshiba, and Nortel. Other companies, including Hitachi, NEC, Matsushita, and Sony, had announced plans for conversion to Pb-free assembly during 2000−2001. Many of our customers in the telecommunications and automotive sectors have programs for development of Pb-free processes and are querying their suppliers regarding availability of Pb-free compatible components."