North American orders of circuit boards and flexible circuits drop for three straight quarters
BANNOCKBURN, Ill., 26 Oct. 2011. Year-over combined orders for rigid printed circuit boards and flexible circuits manufactured in North America dropped for the ninth consecutive month in September, say analysts at IPC, the Association Connecting Electronics Industries in Bannockburn, Ill. Orders of North American circuit boards and flexible circuits in September declined 18.4 percent from the same month one year ago. Compared to the previous month, combined industry orders of North American circuit boards and flexible circuits in August decreased by 7.3 percent, IPC analysts say.
Combined shipments of North American circuit boards and flexible circuits in September, meanwhile, dropped by 12 percent from the same month last year, yet compared to the previous month, however, combined industry shipments for September 2011 increased 4.9 percent. Year to date, and combined industry shipments were down 0.2 percent and orders were down 9.6 percent, IPC says.
"Sales and orders were both under last year's levels in September," says IPC President & CEO Denny McGuirk. "Bookings have been especially sluggish and that has caused a drop in the book-to-bill ratio, although it is still very near parity, which suggests that flat sales is the likely near-term scenario."
September orders of North American printed circuit boards alone were down 19.9 percent over the same month last year. Compared to the previous month circuit board orders decreased 8.9 percent. Year to date, circuit board orders were down 9.6 percent in September. Shipments of printed circuit boards were down 13.1 percent compared to the same month in 2010, yet compared to the previous month, circuit board shipments increased 3.5 percent. Year to date, rigid PCB shipments decreased 0.4 percent.
Orders of flexible circuits in September decreased 18.4 percent compared to the same month in 2010, yet compared to the previous month, flexible circuit orders were up 9.9 percent. Year to date orders of flexible circuits were up 3 percent in September. Shipments of flexible circuits in September were down 0.7 percent compared to September 2011. Compared to the previous month, September shipments of flexible circuits increased by 20.1 percent. Year to date, shipments of flexible circuits increased 1.6 percent.
For more information contact the IPC online at www.ipc.org.
John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
