The industry association for connecting electronic devices, IPC, reported that North American shipments of rigid printed circuit boards (PCBs) rose slightly (3.7 percent) for January with a slight increase of 0.97 percent in the book-to-bill ratio for the month compared to the same time period for the previous year. Flexible circuit shipments in January 2011 were up 10.7 percent while bookings were up 5.3 percent compared to January 2010. The North American flexible circuit book-to-bill ratio climbed above parity to 1.01.
According to IPC President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Denny McGuirk, "The good news is that sales in both segments are still ahead of the same month last year and the numbers look stable." About 26 percent of sales reported to the IPC survey were for military customers, with about 24 percent of rigid circuits for military use and about 46 percent of flexible circuits for military customers.