German PCB sales growth 3% in Q1/08

Due to the early Easter in March only 19 working days were available and compared with March 2007 and February 2008 about 10% less sales were recorded. Per working day, the expected sales in March, however, were 6.4% higher than thos for the same period in 2007 and for Q1/08 in increase is 4.2%. Incoming orders are also showing good results.For six months in a row, the order inflow is much higher than the that of the previous month. Because of the reduced number of working days, the orders received in March are about 4% lower compared to February. Compared to the previous year, however, an increase of 18% was recorded and on a quarterly basis almost 12% more orders were recorded. The comparison per working day shows an even more extreme increase: For March 2007, an increase of 37% was reached and on quarterly comparison 15% more were recorded. Especially the segments of industrial and automotive electronics contributed significantly to the good figures. The book-to-bill ratio reached 1.13 - an unusual value - which has not been reached in a March during the last eight years. The number of employees declined somewhat since January, but remains slightly higher than in the previous year.