North American PCB sales and orders trending upward

Year to date, PCB industry shipments were down 4.2 percent and bookings were up 0.1 percent. Compared to the previous month, PCB shipments in July were down 13.7 percent and bookings were down 3.2 percent. Bookings exceeded shipments in July and the PCB book-to-bill ratio strengthened to 1.06. Although still not quite in positive territory, year-on-year sales growth has been improving steadily over the past three months, bolstered by solid growth in orders since the beginning of 2013. Most of the improvements in July’s results are due to the strong performance of the rigid PCB segment. “Month-to-month growth is typically negative in the first month of the quarter due to seasonal trends,” said IPC’s director of market research Sharon Starr. “Year-on-year growth is the best indicator of industry performance, and these growth rates in July continue to be encouraging,” she explained. “Rigid PCB year-on-year sales growth in July reached positive territory for the first time in more than two years. Orders in both rigid and flex segments were strong, resulting in a slight uptick in the PCB book-to-bill ratio."