FRANKFURT -- Germany-based printed circuit board fabricators reported sales rose 4% sequentially in March, but fell 6.4% year-over-year.

New orders rose nearly 5% in February and by almost 4% over the same month last year.

Revenue per working day rose 3% over last year, the Central Association of PCB and Electronic Systems said.

First-quarter revenue was down 1% from the previous year, while orders were down 0.4% from 2012.

Germany is Europe's largest PCB-producer.

The book-to-bill ratio was 0.98, meaning for every EUR 100 of PCBs shipped, EUR 98 in new orders were received.

The number of employees was unchanged from the previous month.