BANNOCKBURN, IL — North American printed circuit board fabricators reported the 90-day moving average shipments edged up 5.4% over last year in November.

Sequentially, November shipments fell 2.2%.

Year-to-date bookings in November fell 1.2% versus last year. Bookings fell 10.2% from October.

The book-to-bill ratio for the month fell five basis points to 1.10, meaning $110 worth of PCBs were ordered for every $100 shipped. 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 companies in IPC’s survey sample.

It was the fourth straight month the ratio fell since reaching a yearly high of 1.31. in August.  Still, the ratio satyed above the benchmark 1.0 level, suggesting demand is ahead of supply and the market will grow over the next three to 12 months.

“Lower than normal utilization rates and other supply chain struggles continue to restrain PCB shipments,” said Shawn DuBravac, chief economist, IPC. “Year-to-date books are up nearly 18% while shipments are up 5.7% over the same time period.”