BANNOCKBURN, IL -- North American shipments of PCBs rose 9% in October but orders fell 6.2% year-over-year, IPC said.

The book-to-bill ratio in October was 0.99, dropping below 1.0 for the first time since November 2004. 

Year to date, shipments are up 9.8% and bookings are up 7.2%. Sequentially, shipments fell 13.7% and orders dropped 7.9%.

For the month, rigid shipments rose 7.8% while bookings fell 6% year-on-year, dropping the rigid book-to-bill ratio to 0.02 points to 0.99. It was the first time the rigid ratio ended below 1.0 since July 2005. Year to date, rigid PCB shipments are up 9.9% and bookings are up 8.3%.

The flex circuit book-to-bill ratio fell 0.01 point to 0.91.

The B2B ratios are calculated by dividing the value of orders booked over the past three months by the value of sales billed during the same period from the companies in IPC’s survey sample.  A ratio of more than 1.0 suggests that current demand is ahead of supply, which indicates probable near-term growth.