BANNOCKBURN, IL – The 90-day moving average shipments of all types of circuit boards rose 3.3% year-on-year in June, and bookings jumped 37.4%, according to the latest poll of North American PCB fabricators.

A large percentage of the production includes boards built offshore and distributed by North American vendors. According to IPC, which tracks the data, 26% of the shipments reported were produced offshore, down from 34% from May.

The domestic book-to-bill ratio rose 0.10 points to 1.13. The ratio is based on data collected by IPC from rigid and flex producers and is calculated by dividing three months worth of orders by sales. A ratio over 1.0 is considered an indicator of rising demand.

The ratio for rigid PCBs was down 0.03 to 1.01, while that of flexible circuits rose 0.53 points to 1.51.

Rigid board shipments, estimated by IPC to make up 75% of all domestic PCBs, were down 3.9% in June vs. a year ago. Bookings fell 5.8% during the month.

Flex sales rose 35.7% and bookings skied, rising 260.7%. Value-added services made up 57% of the shipment value of flex circuits.

Year-to-date, rigid shipments are down 6.4% and bookings are off 3.8%. Flex bookings are up 103% and shipments are up 24.3%. Shipments of all boards are down 1% and bookings are down 0.5%.

Sequentially, combined shipments were up 16.6 over May, while bookings rose 38.5%. Rigid shipments were up 13.3% and bookings 5.3%. Flex shipments were up 28.4% and bookings were up 141.5% over May.

Seventy-four percent of PCB shipments reported was domestically produced. Domestic production accounted for 86% of rigid PCB and 37% of flexible circuit shipments in June, IPC said.

In a statement, IPC cautioned that month-to-month comparisons should be made with caution as they may reflect cyclical effects.