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IPC Releases February Book-to-Bill Ratio, Business Report
April 7, 2005 |Estimated reading time: 1 minute
BANNOCKBURN, Ill. — IPC—Association Connecting Electronics Industries announces the findings from its monthly PCB Statistical Program. The North American PCB Industry Book-to-Bill Ratio for February 2005 continued at 1.08, based on monthly data collected from both rigid PCB and flexible circuit producers that participate in the PCB Statistical Program. Separately, the book-to-bill ratios in February 2005 were 1.04 for rigid PCBs and 1.23 for flexible circuits.
The 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 the companies in IPC's survey sample. A ratio of more than 1.00 suggests that current demand is ahead of supply, which indicates probable near-term growth.
Rigid PCB shipments are down 3.2%, and bookings are down 9.8% in February 2005 from February 2004. So far this year, rigid PCB shipments are down 1.8%, and bookings are down 6.0%. Rigid PCB shipments and rigid bookings from the survey sample increased 11.2% and 4.5% from the previous month, respectively.
Flexible circuit shipments are up 21.2%, and bookings are down 105.0% in February 2005 from exactly one year ago. Year-to-date, flexible circuit shipments are up 33.8%, with bookings down 26.2%. Compared to the prior month, flexible circuit shipments decreased 13.9%, and flex bookings decreased 104.7%.
For rigid PCBs and flexible circuits combined, industry sales billed (shipments) in February 2005 increased 0.9% from February 2004, and orders booked decreased 34.1% from the same period. As of yet this year, combined industry shipments are up 4.3%, and bookings are down 10.1%. Combined industry shipments for February 2005 are up 5.1% over the previous month, and bookings are down 28.3%.
In February 2005, 67% of total PCB shipments reported were domestically produced. Domestic production accounted for 74% of rigid PCB and 37% of flexible circuit shipments in February.
Flexible circuit sales typically include some value-added services, such as assembly, in addition to the bare flex circuits. In February, the flexible circuit manufacturers in the survey sample indicated that bare circuits accounted for about 30% of their shipment value reported for the month.