Al,

I don't believe it's a simple question of who is making more or less money.
The fabricators are sqeezed to be competitive in their pricing. When they ask
you to do something to improve the yields, they are attempting to overcome a
loss and also give your purchasing people the best price break. More often,
when they ask for a concession, they are already contemplating raising the
cost, and are attempting to find a way not to. There does come a point where
the fabricator cannot cost effectively produce a board. That is the time when
he will cease to accept your low yield board. When a board design narrows the
paying field (availability of fabricators), the cost inherently goes up.

Regards,

Gary Ferrari
Tech Circuits
(203) 269-3311