End-product orders slip in July, but electronics supply chain sales recovery continues

The long-term outlook for the EMS industry remains positive with ever increasing global demand for consumer electronics, IPC reports.

Staff -- Electronic Business, 9/9/2008

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. 
 
US retail sales struggled in July as consumers faced rising petrol and food prices. US new orders for computer and electronic products dipped in July. PCBs (printed circuit boards) also slipped in July after rising in the last quarter.

However, semiconductor and EMS (electronics manufacturing services) shipments continued their upward momentum.  The long-term outlook for the EMS industry remains positive with ever increasing global demand for consumer electronics.

Trends in US computer and electronic products new orders vs North American sales indices of selected supplier industries, August 2007 to July 2008

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; U.S. Census Bureau for U.S. new orders for computer and electronic products.