BANNOCKBURN, IL — North American printed circuit board fabricators reported the 90-day moving average shipments rose 9.7% in June over last year.

PCB bookings fell 9.7% year-over-year, despite an 18.2% increase sequentially.

Year-to-date bookings are up 1.3%. Shipments were up 18.9% sequentially, raising the year-to-date growth to 6.1%.

The book to bill ratio fell three basis points to 0.98, a sign that shipments are outpacing orders and an indicator of future contraction. The ratio is calculated by dividing the value of orders booked over the past three months by the value of sales billed during the same period from companies in IPC’s survey sample.

It's only the second time in the past 13 months that the ratio has fallen below 1.0, the last time being November 2015.

"Sales growth in the North American PCB industry was strong in June, while orders continued to decline,” said Sharon Starr, IPC’s director of market research. “The book-to-bill ratio has been trending downward since April and the divergence between June’s sales and order growth pushed the ratio below parity” she added, “signaling the likelihood of slowing sales growth in the third quarter.”

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