ATLANTA – Following a typical slowdown in December, ECIA’s most recent survey reveals strong month-to-month growth in January for electronic component sales. The group expects even stronger performance in February.

Industry executives and analysts had anticipated a strong start to the year, and the results in the early stages are validating those expectations. Every component category – semiconductors, passives, and electro-mechanical – saw a strong January rebound following the December lull.

Electro-mechanical/connector components have shown the greatest volatility in sales index measurements in recent months. This category measured a dramatic decline in December, followed by a rebound in January that more than offset the December decline.

Passive components also saw a strong January boost. Over the past ten months, semiconductors have typically reported the strongest sequential growth. So, even though it did not see the same jump in January as other categories, it still recorded the strongest results for the month.

The relative strength of semiconductor sales performance is seen in the actual sales growth measured by WSTS through November. On a global basis, for the full year 2020, semiconductor sales should grow around 5.5% worldwide and nearly 20% in the Americas region. The good news continues looking forward to February as the sales index is projected to reach its highest level for passive and electro-mechanical components since the start of the survey in October 2019.

The index outlook for February shows the forecast for all three component categories grouped tightly together within a range of 2.5 points. The average for overall end market demand lags slightly behind but still shows strong performance in monthly growth.

A review of the monthly sales growth index for electronic components in end-markets shows the automotive and industrial markets with the strongest performance in recent months. This is great news for these sectors following an extremely difficult sales environment through most of 2020, says ECIA.

Mobile handsets have seen the most weakness among the end markets. However, the mobile handset market index has remained above 100 for the past four months.

Since September, the lead time index for all components has indicated a significant growth in lead times. Given various reports from other sources, this is aligned with the extending lead times experienced by many electronic component procurement groups.

Similarly, the index reports a decline in product cancellations over the same time frame, except December, for almost all component categories. If the global economy continues to improve, it appears electronic component supply will be heavily pressured by market demand in 2021.

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