BANNOCKBURN, IL – The January 90-day moving average shipments of all types of circuit boards rose 2.7% year-on-year, while bookings rose 10.8%, according to the latest poll of North American PCB fabricators.

The domestic book-to-bill ratio was 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 flat at 1.09, while that of flexible circuits jumped 0.35 points to 1.30. Data may be skewed from year-to-year because of changes in the reporting companies.

“The positive results in December continued into January, with both rigid PCB and flexible circuit sales ahead of last year’s numbers,” said IPC in a statement.

Rigid board shipments, estimated by IPC to make up more than 75% of all domestic PCBs, were up 1.9% in January vs. a year ago. Bookings rose 13% during the month.

Flex sales rose 16.5% but bookings dropped 15.4%. Value-added services made up 23% of the shipment value of flex circuits.

According to IPC, 12% of the shipments reported were produced offshore and distributed by North American fabricators.

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