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To: SusieQ1065 who wrote (54048)	5/28/2002 5:13:11 PM
From: 2MAR$	Respond to of 208838

U.S. circuit board demand down in April-survey LOS ANGELES, May 28 (Reuters) - The book-to-bill ratio for printed circuit boards fell to an eight-month low in April, the third straight monthly drop and a sign of weaker demand for the electronics manufacturing industry, trade data released on Tuesday showed. The book-to-bill ratio, which is watched as an indicator of sales and product demand in the electronics manufacturing industry, fell to 0.94 in April from 0.98 in March and from 1.00 in February, according to figures by the Northbrook, Illinois-based trade association IPC. The ratio is derived by taking the three-month industry average of orders booked and dividing by the three-month average of sales billed. An even 1.00 number means that new orders equaled shipments of existing orders in the period. The IPC's shipment index for April was 131.9, down 13 percent from from 151.6 in March, while the booking index of new orders was 123.7, down 15.9 percent from 147 in March. Results from 1992 serve as a base of 100 for the index. Printed wiring boards are components in electronic devices, such as computers. Contract manufacturing companies are among the major manufacturers and use the products in equipment that is assembled for name-brand electronics companies. Sales billed in April decreased 31.5 percent from April 2001, while orders booked were down 10.9 percent from the year-earlier period. The year-over-year percentage drop in orders booked was much smaller than in past months, where that drop has sometimes exceeded 40 percent. Year-to-date, booking are down 27.2 percent over 2001, while shipments are down 37.6 percent. The ratio hit a bottom of 0.63 in April. It recovered for four straight months before falling in September and October, and then beginning its recovery through January. Printed wiring board production was a $42.7 billion business globally in 2000, according to IPC, with Japan and the United States the largest markets. IPC said 60 percent of the companies involved in the printed wiring board market in the United States take part in their survey. A number of major contract manufacturers, including Sanmina-SCI Corp. <SANM.O> and Flextronics International Ltd. <FLEX.O> make bare wiring boards for in-house and customer use. ((Ben Berkowitz, 213-955-6781; fax, 213-622-0056; e-mail, ben.berkowitz@reuters.com)) REUTERS * end of story *