OCTOBER 25--The IPC-Association Connecting Electronics Industries (Northbrook, IL; www.ipc.org) has announced its findings from its monthly Statistical Program. The US printed-circuit-board (PCB) industry book-to-bill ratio for September 2002 was 0.95. Sales billed (shipments) in September 2002 decreased 5% from September 2001 and orders booked increased 4.2% from September 2001. Compared to 2001, bookings of PCBs are down 16.1% year-to-date, while shipments of PCBs are down 26.8% year-to-date.
The ratio is calculated by averaging the number of orders booked over the past three months and dividing by the average sales billed during the same period.
The PCB Business Report, an IPC statistical report that tracks the dynamics of the US PCB industry, described the PCB shipment index as 137.4 and the PCB booking index as 121.4 for September 2002. The IPC PCB shipment index in September 2002 increased 8.5% from 125.7 in August 2002, and the IPC PCB booking index in September 2002 increased 3.1% from 117.6 in August 2002.
The index shows how current PCB shipments and bookings relate to an index point. (In this case, 1992 was chosen as the index point because it was a stable growth year for US PCB manufacturers.) A shipment index number of 117.0 indicates that shipments are 17% higher than average shipments for the same time period in 1992.
