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News

LOS ALTOS, CA – The outlook for the global electronics equipment industry this year will be bleak, according to the December market forecast from research firm Henderson Ventures. Based on the economic forecast, worldwide electronics equipment production is forecast to fall 2.2% during 2009 following a lackluster gain of 1.2% in 2008.

BANNOCKBURN, IL -- The IPC announced the North American PCB shipment and booking results for November 2008.

Rigid PCB shipments were down 5.8% and bookings down 17.3% in November compared to 2007. Year-to-date rigid PCB shipments were still up 2.4% but and YTD bookings were down 3.8%. Rigid PCB shipments decreased 0.2% and bookings decreased 5.8% compared to October.

The book-to-bill ratio for the North American rigid PCB industry in November 2008 slipped again falling to 0.94. The ratio has been below 1.0 since May of 2008, indicating market contraction.

Flexible circuit activity in November 2008 was also down with shipments down 22.6% and bookings down 36.8% compared 2007.

“PCB orders and shipments continued to decline in November, with flexible circuits being especially hard hit,” said IPC President Denny McGuirk. “Overall, the industry’s sales are slowing as the recession deepens. We expect total industry sales to end the year at about the same level as 2007,” he added.

The combined rigid and flex shipments were down 7% when comparing November 2008 with November 2007. Bookings were down 18.8% for the same period.

The book-to-bill ratios are 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. In November, 86% of the total PCB shipments reported by companies participating in the survey were produced domestically.