BANNOCKBURN, IL – The North American PCB Market Report, published this week by IPC, predicts 3.2% growth in the North American printed circuit board market in 2013.

While sales and orders are down slightly for rigid PCBs and positive for flexible PCBs, the book-to-bill ratios for both segments are strengthening, IPC says.

Growth in sales and orders is shown by product type and company size tiers, as well as sales to military and medical end-markets.

Order backlogs, a leading indicator for sales, are at lower-than-average levels, but finished goods inventories are normal. Analysis of the data on these and other leading indicators is found in the report, along with data on domestic production as a percent of sales each month.

The industry’s confidence indexes for the next quarter and the next year show that flexible circuit board manufacturers are more optimistic that they will ultimately see growth in 2013.

The report’s appendix includes the tables of index numbers that IPC uses to track rigid PCB and flexible circuit board sales trends over the years and an update on US PCB imports and exports.

A one-year subscription to the monthly report is available for $1,200 per year, with a discounted annual price of $600 for IPC members.

Subscriptions can be purchased at www.ipc.org/subscription-order.

The monthly PCB book-to-bill release and other macro industry data are available at www.ipc.org/marketresearch.