Due to the Christmas holiday season, December sales figures fell for PCB manufacturers.
Many customers stopped taking deliveries before year end to show the lowest possible inventory values on December 31, 2013. writes the German industry association ZVEI PCB and Electronic Systems. Turnover for 4Q/2013 was 2% higher that during the corresponding quarter in 2012. Even for 2013 (as whole), figures closed slightly higher than in 2012.
Order intake in December stood almost 7% lower than that of December 2012; full year 2013 recorded a YoY 1% increase in order intake.
The book-to -bill ratio for December 2013 stood at 1.16 (the highest value of the year).
The number of employees fell (in direct comparison to the reference month 2012). This was caused by the closure of production facilities.
