News and New Products

Semi, PCB shipments hurt by energy prices, mortgage woes, IPC reports

In its monthly report for December, the IPC finds that US consumer spending declined dramatically.

By Staff -- Electronic Business, 2/11/2008

Editor’s note: The following information is provided by IPC — Association Connecting Electronics Industries from its quarterly business report, the Supply Chain Tracker. Other industry data can be found at www.ipc.org.

In the US consumer spending declined dramatically in December brought on by high energy prices, mortgage woes and slowing job growth. Semiconductor and PCB shipments saw a decline in December.

In spite of signs of looming recession in the US economy, US new orders rebounded in the month of December. Also the EMS shipments outlook remains positive with ever increasing global demand for consumer electronics.

Trends in computer and electronic products new orders vs sales indices of selected supplier industries, January 2007 – December 2007

Note on the graph:  All indices are based on the same baseline of the average month in 2000=100, and reflect a 3-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.