JULY 26--IPC-Association Connecting Electronics Industries (Northbrook, IL; www.ipc.org) has announced the findings from its monthly Statistical Program. The US printed-circuit-board (PCB) industry book-to-bill ratio for June 2002 was 0.96. Sales billed (shipments) in June 2002 decreased 19.1% from June 2001, and orders booked decreased 13.8% from June 2001. Compared to 2001, bookings of PCBs are down 23.3% year-to-date, while shipments of PCBs are down 33.4% 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, reported the PCB shipment index was 142.8 and the PCB booking index was 138.1 for June 2002.The IPC PCB shipment index in June 2002 increased 13.5% from 125.8 in May 2002, and the IPC PCB booking index in June 2002 increased 13.9% from 121.2 in May 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 U.S. 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. The indices are calculated by setting the base year (1992) equal to 100 and then multiplying the monthly growth rates of the actual shipments and bookings by the corresponding index number.
