BANNOCKBURN, IL — October North American printed circuit board shipments were down 8.3% year-over-year. Year-to-date shipments were up 2.8%. Sequentially, October shipments decreased 13.9%, says IPC.

PCB orders in October decreased 1.8% year-over-year. Year -to-date orders were down 0.1%. Sequentially, orders in October decreased 12.3%.

The PCB book-to-bill ratio continued to strengthen, climbing to 1.08. A ratio of more than one suggests current demand is ahead of supply, a positive indicator for sales growth over the next three to six months.

“As a leading indicator, the book-to-bill ratio’s dip below parity (1.00) in June and July of this year anticipated last month’s downturn in sales,” said Sharon Starr, IPC’s director of market research. “The flip side of this, however, is the current strong book-to-bill ratio indicates the probability of a return to growth later this year or in early 2017.”

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