Recovery expected to continue in electronics supply chain
Staff -- EDN, February 12, 2010
The EMS (electronics manufacturing services) industry still has not shown signs of recovery. EMS shipments seem to have hit the bottom in August 2009, but have remained flat through the end of the year.
Other sectors of the supply chain are recovering. US new orders for computer and electronic products have shown very gradual improvement, with a seasonal spike in November followed by a normal decrease in December. PCB (printed circuit board) and semiconductor shipments followed a similar seasonal pattern in November and December.
Several leading indicators support the view that the electronics industry is on the road to recovery. IPC’s PCB book-to-bill ratio has been above parity (1.0) since May 2009. It stands at 1.04 as of December. The book-to-bill ratio leads sales in the PCB industry by an average of three to six months. The current trend is a very encouraging sign of expected growth in North American PCB sales in 2010.
Trends in U.S. Computer and Electronic Products New Orders and North American Sales Indices of Selected Supplier Industries, January 2009 to December 2009
Note on the graph: All indices are based on the same baseline of the average month in 2000=100, and reflect a three-month rolling average.
Sources: IPC statistical programs for the EMS and PCB industries; SIA for semiconductor data; US Census Bureau for US new orders for computer and electronic products.
