BOSTON -- The largest printed circuit fabricators in the US are offering a slightly improved outlook on the state of defense spending, according to their recent quarterly statements.

Booking trends are generally on the upswing at TTM Technologies, Sanmina and Multek, although the picture remains muddied.

The military sector is considered by many bare board fabricators to be a key end-market because it tends to drive higher margins and is protected from external competition.

For TTM, the US Defense Department's largest PCB supplier, the aerospace and defense end-market represented 17% of total sales, or about $50 million, in the March quarter. The company experienced lower defense-related bookings in late 2013, but says a positive booking trend has emerged in the A&D space as customers are starting to moving forward with critical programs. 

Sanmina gave the least optimistic forecast, calling the near-term outlook "choppy." Defense sales were down slightly in the March quarter, the company said. "[W]e had a choppy demand and we expect for defense to continue to be choppy for the next couple of quarters," said chairman and chief executive Jure Sola. "While we believe this is a good segment. ... We continue to invest in the new programs that we believe it’s going to drive the future demand. And opportunities in defense for us are promising."

Sanmina chief financial officer Bob Eulau added, "The other thing that we expected, and it’s beginning to happen, is with cost pressure on the prime contractors. We are seeing more opportunity on the [integrated manufacturing solutions] side and defense than we have seen in quite a while. We think we will be successful over the long-term."

Of the three largest US-based fabricators, Flextronics gave the least amount of color as to its defense forecast. Military work is accounted for within the firm's High Reliability Solutions business unit, which also includes automotive, medical and aerospace. The company said sales in the unit grew 2% sequentially and 9% year-over-year to $843 million in the March quarter, driven by automotive and medical, a figure it expects to be stable in the current quarter. 

One other publicly traded US fabricator, Advanced Circuits, now the third largest bare board supplier in the US in terms of onshore revenues, said in March it continues to experience softness in its defense and aerospace business.

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