ATLANTA – Participants in the electronic components supply chain are suddenly and strikingly optimistic in their expectations for January after a year of overall index scores languishing between 72.2 and 90.6, according to ECIA's most recent survey.

The actual sentiment index result for December came in at 77.8, 5.5 points below the already modest outlook of 83.3 for December as reported in the November survey.

For the full year of 2023, none of the major component segments achieved an index score at or above 100, which would have indicated positive sales growth sentiment. Expectations for January have shot up by 27.8 points in the overall index to hit an average of 105.6 points.

"If this projected growth is actually realized in January, it would be the strongest month-to-month growth in the history of the index, with the exception of one month in June 2020," said ECIA Chief Analyst Dale Ford. "As always, some caution in expectations is prudent given previous disappointments in index results falling below expectations. However, even if the index achieves half of the forecast improvement in January, it will represent an extremely healthy start to the year."

• Prev
• Next