TOKYO -- METI, Japan's government body for market data, said August PWB production in Japan was up 3.5% year-on-year, reaching 69,375 million yen. It was the first positive growth this year.

Sales were down just 0.2% from July. According to Dominique Numakura, an PCB analyst, the trend breaks with historical norms. August is typically the slowest month of the year for Japanese PWB makers as production declines more than 10% sequentially due to summer vacations. 

Rigid board shipments grew 7.3% to 43,679 million yen from a year ago. Single sided boards declined, while double-sided and build-up boards rose -- the latter more than 20% growth yoy. 

Flex circuits totaled 10,767 million yen, down 3.5% decline from July and 17.6% from last year. Single-sided flex fell  9.6% from a year ago but grew 7.9% over July. Double-sided flex fell 11.2% from July and 23% decline from 2004.

"It may be too early to confirm the recovery trend of the PWB business in Japan; however, there are several positive numbers in the METI data, and several signs of recovery in the market," Numakura wrote in his weekly newsletter. "I have been communicating with several major PWB companies in Japan, and they agree that manufacturing companies are getting more orders, and shipments will have remarkable growth from October."

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