BANNOCKBURN, IL – January PWB shipments fell 17% year-over-year, and bookings decreased 29.3%. The combined industry book-to-bill fell to 0.89, says IPC.
 
For the month, rigid shipments dropped 18.9%, and bookings dipped 30.7% compared to the same month last year. The book-to-bill slipped further to 0.88.
 
Flex shipments rose 16.6%, while bookings slid 1.8% year-over-year. The book-to-bill declined to 0.98.
 
“Sales and orders of rigid PCBs declined sharply in January compared to January 2008, but flexible circuit sales were surprisingly strong,” said IPC. “The industry has not hit the bottom yet, but we will continue to watch the leading indicators, such as our book-to-bill ratio, for signs of an upturn.”
 
Rigid PCBs represent an estimated 90% of the current PCB industry in North America, according to IPC. In January, 90% of total PCB shipments reported were domestically produced.
 
For the month, flex circuit manufacturers indicated bare circuits accounted for about 71% of their shipment value.  

NEW YORK – New analysis of communications supply chains shows inventories are falling across the board.

According to Barron's, inventory at OEM and EMS companies fell 10 days sequentially in the second quarter.

The financial publication reported combined inventories dropped to 77 days, based on data from major communications companies like Cisco and their suppliers.

AUSTIN – Large-area (10" and larger) TFT LCD shipments reached 130 million units in the second quarter, up 10% year-over-year and 42% sequentially, says DisplaySearch.

Because of the increase in prices, large-area TFT LCD revenues of $15 billion grew 51% sequentially, but were still down 29% compared to the second quarter last year.

Strong market demand in the quarter led to a recovery in capacity utilization across all applications, says the research firm.

Also, panel makers are increasing capacity utilization to respond to growing demand and targeting third-quarter shipments of large-area TFT LCD panels of 152.8 million, up 18% compared to the second quarter. If panel makers reach their unit shipment targets, revenue growth is expected to be 32%, says DisplaySearch.

In the second quarter, Samsung Electronics led in large-area TFT LCD panel revenues, with sales of $4.2 billion, a 27.8% revenue share. LG Display was second, with $3.7 billion in revenues and a 25% sales share. AUO was third at $2.3 billion, with a 15.7% share, with CMO closely behind at 15.3% share.

LG Display took first place in unit shipments, but Samsung shipped the most by area, says DisplaySearch.

On a unit basis, Korea was the largest supplier of large-area TFT LCD panels with a 49.8% share, but was down from 52.2% in the first quarter because of strong shipment growth of Taiwanese panel suppliers. Taiwan's share increased from 38.4% in the previous period to 41.2% in this quarter.

"We are forecasting that industry utilization will be 87% in the third quarter, due to growing orders. In the second quarter, the industry experienced a strong recovery, and shipments reached record highs. We expect that strong demand will push panel shipments to another record high in the third quarter. However, strong panel shipments in some cases are due to downstream players piling up inventory, so we believe it will be necessary to watch the supply chain inventory situation closely at the end of the third quarter," said David Hsieh, vice president of DisplaySearch.

SMYRNA, GA -- More than 2,000 PCB designers, fabricators and assemblers registered for Virtual PCB (www.virtual-pcb.com), the industry's only virtual trade show and conference, which took place this week.

The live event was held Feb. 24-25, and the show will remain open in an archive mode for two months.

Exhibitors include several leading suppliers of placement, soldering and test equipment, materials, software, and bare boards. The technical conference includes Webinars on design, simulation, soldering, lead-free assembly, and environmental issues from well-known industry experts.

New this year were technical chats featuring experts on subjects ranging from CAD and MCAD software to laminates, and from assembly process defect solutions to the potential of alternative energy platforms for SMT manufacturers.

“We found the technical conference to be a huge draw, with some Webinars attracting several hundred attendees, which simple logistics would prevent at the industry’s ‘live’ events,” said Mike Buetow, editor in chief of Circuits Assembly, which cosponsored Virtual PCB.

A fully interactive, Web-based event, Virtual PCB incorporates all the critical features of a live event while allowing PCB design, fabrication and assembly equipment and materials buyers and sellers to interact online.
 
For more information about Virtual PCB, visit www.virtual-pcb.com or contact Alyson Skarbek, show manager, at 678-589-8865 or askarbek@upmediagroup.com.

Virtual PCB is produced by UP Media Group, the industry’s leading publisher of technical magazines.