IPC releases new book-to-bill ratios and IMS/PCB Business Report

SEPTEMBER 30--IPC--Association Connecting Electronics Industries (Northbrook, IL; www.ipc.org) has announced the findings from its monthly Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Statistical Program. The North American PCB industry book-to-bill ratio for August 2004 continued positive at 1.04. This ratio is based on monthly data collected from both rigid PCB and flexible circuit producers that participate in IPC's monthly program. Separately, the book-to-bill ratios in August 2004 were 1.05 for rigid PCBs and 0.98 for flexible circuits.

For rigid PCBs and flexible circuits combined, industry sales billed (shipments) in August 2004 increased 33.6% from August 2003, and orders booked increased 9.8% from August 2003. Compared to 2003, shipments of PCBs are up 34.7% year-to-date, while bookings of PCBs are up 38.0% year-to-date. Combined industry shipments for August 2004 are up 13.8% over the previous month, and bookings are down 0.3% over the previous month.

Both rigid and flex shipments are rebounding from the recession and are showing strong growth, but flex is growing at a faster rate than rigid.