BANNOCKBURN, IL – The 90-day moving average shipments of all types of circuit boards slipped 7.8% year-on-year in May, and bookings plummeted 17%, according to the latest poll of North American PCB fabricators. Yet despite a 7.5% drop in bookings year-to-date, the trade group which takes the poll said it expects a second-half rebound.

“It’s pretty clear that 2005 will be a year of flat growth [sic] for the North American PCB industry overall,” said IPC, which takes the poll, in a statement. “But positive book-to-bill ratios over the last several months and other leading indicators suggest that demand should remain stable throughout the remainder of 2005.”

A large percentage of the production includes boards built offshore and distributed by North American vendors. According to IPC, 34% of the shipments reported were produced offshore, down seven points from April.

The domestic book-to-bill ratio rose 0.03 points to 1.03. 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 up 0.03 to 1.04, while that of flexible circuits rose 0.19 points to 0.98.

Rigid board shipments, estimated by IPC to make up 75% of all domestic PCBs, were down 11% in May vs. a year ago. Bookings rose 2.5% for the month.

Flex sales rose 6.2% but bookings cratered, down 47.7%. Value-added services made up 59% of the shipment value of flex circuits.

Year-to-date, rigid shipments are down 6.9% and bookings are off 3.4%. Flex bookings are off 19.6% and shipments are up 21.8%. Shipments of all boards are down 1.9% and bookings are down 7.5%.

Sequentially, combined shipments were up 2.9 over April, while bookings rose 9.1%. Rigid shipments were up 6.9% and bookings 3.4%, sequentially. Flex shipments dropped 9.4% and bookings were up 22.5% over April.

Seventy-six percent of PCB shipments reported were domestically produced. Domestic production accounted for 86% of rigid PCB and 41% of flexible circuit shipments in May, IPC said.

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

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