BANNOCKBURN, IL – Printed circuit board orders at North American fabricators fell 18% year-over-year in May, pushing year-to-date orders down 8.1%.

Sequentially, orders were down 14.3%, says IPC, which tracks the data.

The 90-day moving average shipments were up 0.1% year-over-year in May. Sequentially, PCB shipments declined 0.3%.

Year-to-date shipments were down 0.1% compared to the same period in 2013.

The North American PCB book-to-bill ratio dropped below parity to 0.98. A ratio of more than one suggests current demand is ahead of supply, which is a positive indicator for sales growth over the next three to six months.

It was the lowest ratio since January, and reversed a two-month stint in positive territory.

“While sales growth is slowing, declining orders pushed the book-to-bill ratio below parity after just two months of positive ratios,” said Sharon Starr, IPC’s director of market research. “This setback in the industry’s recovery is likely to be short-lived, given the positive economic outlook for North America this year.”

The data do no include sales of brokered boards that were fabricated by offshore manufacturers and resold by North American companies. Brokered boards accounted for 9.7% of rigid PCBs sold and 35.7% of flexible circuits sold during 2013, IPC told PCD&F.