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BANNOCKBURN, IL – The September 90-day moving average
shipments of all types of circuit boards rose 5.3% year-on-year, and bookings
rose 36.7%, according to the latest poll of North American PCB fabricators.
A large percentage of the production
includes boards built offshore and distributed by North American vendors.
According to IPC, 29% of the shipments reported were produced offshore.
The domestic
book-to-bill ratio rose to 1.18. The ratio is based on data collected by IPC
from rigid and flex producers and is calculated by dividing three months worth
of orders by sales. A ratio over 1.0 is considered an indicator of rising
demand.
The ratio for rigid PCBs was rose to
1.07, while that of flexible circuits rose to 1.52.
“PCB sales were up in September,
following the typical seasonal pattern,” said IPC in a statement. “Compared to
last year, rigid PCB sales are staying flat and flexible circuits are
continuing their strong growth trend. September bookings numbers are way
up in both segments of the industry, which is an encouraging sign for
fourth-quarter business.”
Rigid board shipments, estimated by
IPC to make up more than 75% of all domestic PCBs, were down 0.5% in September
vs. a year ago. Bookings rose 20.2% during the month.
Flex sales rose 28% and bookings
jumped 81.4%. Value-added services made up 83% of the shipment value of flex
circuits.
Year-to-date, rigid shipments are
down 4.7% and bookings are off 1.2%. Flex bookings are up 28.7% and shipments
are up 27.4%. Shipments of all boards are up 1.2% and bookings are up 5.9%.
Sequentially, combined
shipments were up 9.4% over June, while bookings were up 32.4%. Rigid shipments
were up 11.1% and bookings were up 14.9%. Flex shipments fell 4.3% and bookings
were up 84.5% over June.
Seventy-one percent of
PCB shipments reported was domestically produced. Domestic production accounted
for 84% of rigid PCB and 33% of flexible circuit shipments in July, IPC said.
In a statement, IPC cautioned that
month-to-month comparisons should be made with caution as they may reflect
cyclical effects.
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