"The February rebound in sales was the best news this month, following flat growth in 2015 and a slump in January," says Sharon Starr, IPC's director of market research.
The year-to-date growth rate in board product shipments is 3.6 percent, IPC analysts say. The shipment figures are part of the IPC's February 2016 monthly North American Printed Circuit Board statistical report.
Circuit board bookings in the U.S. and Canada increased by 2.7 percent in February year-on-year, analysts say. This growth rate was not quite high enough to cancel out the preceding month's negative year-on-year order growth, but it brought year-to-date order growth up to -0.5 percent. Orders in February 2016 were down 2.3 percent from the previous month.
The next edition of IPC's North American circuit board Market Report, containing detailed February data from IPC's circuit board Statistical Program, will be available by the end of next week, officials say.
The monthly report presents detailed findings on rigid circuit board and flexible circuit sales and orders, including separate rigid and flex book-to-bill ratios, military and medical market growth, demand for prototypes, and related data.
This report is available free to current participants in IPC's PCB Statistical Program and by subscription to others. For more information contact the IPC online at www.ipc.org/market-research-reports.
