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IPC Releases New Book-to-Bill Ratios and IMS/PCB Business Report for July 2004
August 31, 2004 |Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
Northbrook, Ill. — IPC — Association Connecting Electronics Industries announces the findings from its monthly Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Statistical Program.
The North American PCB Industry Book-to-Bill Ratio for July 2004 climbed slightly from June and remained positive at 1.10. This ratio is based on monthly data collected from both rigid PCB and flexible circuit producers that participate in IPC's monthly PCB Statistical Program. Separately, the book-to-bill ratios in July 2004 were 0.99 for rigid PCBs and 1.57 for flexible circuits.
The ratio is 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.
For rigid PCBs and flexible circuits combined, industry sales billed (shipments) in July 2004 increased 31.1 percent from July 2003, and orders booked increased 42.2 percent from July 2003. Compared to 2003, shipments of PCBs are up 34.8 percent year-to-date, while bookings of PCBs are up 43.0 percent year-to-date. Combined industry shipments for July 2004 are down 18.1 percent over the previous month, and bookings are up 1.9 percent over the previous month. Both rigid and flex shipments are rebounding from the recession and are showing strong growth, but flex is growing at a faster rate than rigid.
Rigid PCB shipments are up 17.6 percent and bookings are up 20.5 percent in July 2004 from July 2003. Year-to-date, rigid PCB shipments have increased 25.5 percent and bookings have increased 23.1 percent compared to the same period in 2003. Rigid PCB shipments from the survey sample decreased 21.2 percent from the previous month and rigid bookings decreased 7.5 percent from the previous month.
Flexible circuit shipments are up 71.1 percent and bookings are up 68.9 percent in July 2004 from July 2003. Year-to-date, flexible circuit shipments have grown 77.8 percent and bookings have grown 133.2 percent compared to the same period in 2003. Compared to the previous month, flexible circuit shipments from the survey sample decreased 3.7 percent and flex bookings increased 56.1 percent.
Flexible circuit sales, which include some value-added services in addition to the bare flex circuits, represent about 17 percent of total PCB sales in IPC's survey sample, which IPC considers to be representative of the industry. It is difficult for most flexible circuit manufacturers to break out value-added services, such as assembly, from their circuit sales. Therefore, the amount of value-added services included in this industry segment's sales is not known.
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 may reflect cyclical effects. Because bookings tend to be more volatile than shipments, changes in the book-to-bill ratios from month-to-month may not be significant unless a trend of three consecutive months or more is apparent.
The information in IPC's monthly industry statistics is based on data provided by a representative sample of both rigid and flexible PCB manufacturers in the U.S. and Canada. IPC publishes the PCB Book-to-Bill Ratio and the Interconnect Manufacturing Services (IMS) Business Report each month. Statistics for the previous month are not available until the last week of the following month.
IPC is a trade association dedicated to the competitive excellence and financial success of its more than 2,200 member companies, which represent all facets of the electronic interconnection industry, including design, printed circuit board manufacturing and electronics assembly. For more information, visit www.ipc.org.