North American PCB business growth continues

Year-over-year sales and order growth continued in July and the book-to-bill ratio strengthened to 1.09.

Total North American PCB shipments increased 2.7 per cent in July 2015 from July 2014.

Year-to-date shipment growth remained at -0.3, reflecting the negative growth rates seen earlier this year. Compared to the previous month, PCB shipments were down 14.3 per cent.

PCB bookings grew 5.8 per cent compared to July 2014, increasing year-to-date order growth to 3.9 per cent. Orders were down 20.6 percent in July compared to the previous month.

“North American PCB sales and orders continued to exceed last year’s levels in July,” said Sharon Starr, IPC’s director of market research.

“The negative month-to-month growth rates in sales and orders reflect normal seasonal patterns. The best news is the 10-month run of positive book-to-bill ratios,” she added, “as this is a good indicator of sales growth in the second half of this year.”

The next edition of IPC’s North American PCB Market Report, containing detailed July data from IPC’s PCB Statistical Program, will be available within the next week.

The monthly report presents detailed findings on rigid PCB and flexible circuit sales and orders, including separate rigid and flex book-to-bill ratios, military and medical market growth, demand for prototypes, and other timely data. This report is available free to current participants in IPC’s PCB Statistical Program and by subscription to others.

More information about this report can be found here.

The book-to-bill ratios are calculated by dividing the value of orders booked over the past three months by the value of sales billed during the same period from companies in IPC’s survey sample.

A ratio of more than 1.00 suggests that current demand is ahead of supply, which is a positive indicator for sales growth over the next three to six months. A ratio of less than 1.00 indicates the reverse.

Year-on-year and year-to-date growth rates provide the most meaningful view of industry growth. Month-to-month comparisons should be made with caution as they reflect seasonal effects and short-term volatility.

Because bookings tend to be more volatile than shipments, changes in the book-to-bill ratios from month to month might not be significant unless a trend of more than three consecutive months is apparent. It is also important to consider changes in both bookings and shipments to understand what is driving changes in the book-to-bill ratio.

IPC’s monthly PCB industry statistics are based on data provided by a representative sample of both rigid PCB and flexible circuit manufacturers selling in the U.S. and Canada.

IPC publishes the PCB book-to-bill ratio at the end of each month. Statistics for the current month are available in the last week of the following month.