JANUARY 28--IPC-Association Connecting Electronics Industries (Northbrook, IL) has announced findings from its monthlyInterconnect Manufacturing Services (IMS)/Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Statistical Program. The IPC PCB Presidents Council recently selected IMS as a better designation for the PCB industry, to better reflect the services provided to customers.
The US IMS/PCB industry book-to-bill ratio for December 2002 was 0.96. Sales billed (shipments) in December 2002 decreased 12.7% from December 2001 and orders booked decreased 12.2% from December 2001. Compared to 2001, bookings of PCBs are down 13.6% year-to-date, while shipments of PCBs are down 22.8% 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.
