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Year-end Book-to-Bill Holds Below Parity
January 25, 2007 |Estimated reading time: 1 minute
BANNOCKBURN, Ill. The December 2006 combined North American rigid and flex circuit book-to-bill held steady at 0.92; the flex circuits ratio saw an increase from 0.86 in November to 0.90 in December. The book-to-bill for rigid circuits remained 0.92.
December 2006 saw an increase of 1.8% from December 2005 in rigid PCB billings, but a decrease of 12.5% in bookings. Flex circuits declined 5.7% in shippings, 27.9% in bookings from last year. The combined industry generated a 1.2% increase in shipments, but a 14.1% decrease in bookings.
Year-to-date, rigid PCBs trended positive shipments rose 8.8% and bookings climbed 4.8%. Flex circuits demonstrated a 5.5% increase in billings and a drop of 12.1% in bookings. Combined, the industries created a year-to-date rise in billings and bookings, at 8.6% and 3.5%, respectively.
Compared to November 2006, rigid PCB manufacturers shipped 2.3% more product, with a 9.3% increase in bookings. Flex circuits rose considerably, with shipments climbing 12.5% and bookings up 35.6% over November. Combined shipments topped November by 3.0%; combined bookings rose by 11.1%.
In December, 87% of PCBs shipped were produced domestically, comprising 87% of all rigid and 95% of all flex boards. Flex circuit manufacturers reported 76% of December's shipment value was bare boards, with the remainder in value-added services.
December was normal for the PCB industry, and 2006 ended well, noted Denny McGuirk, IPC president. The book-to-bill ratios are calculated by dividing the value of orders booked over the past three months by the value of sales billed in the same period by companies participating in IPC's survey. A book-to-bill of 1.00 means that, for every $100 of product booked, $100 of product is shipped and billed.