IPC Design brings printed board design professionals together to connect with other designers, enjoy education and training opportunities, mentor and encourage the next generation of designer engineers, and above all, help advance the art and science of printed board design. IPC President and CEO John Mitchell provides details.
IPC announced today the June 2021 findings from its North American Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) Statistical Program. The book-to-bill ratio stands at 1.48.
Total North American EMS shipments in June 2021 were up 14.3 percent compared to the same month last year. Compared to the preceding month, June shipments grew 31.3 percent.
EMS bookings in June rose 61.3 percent year-over-year and 43.8 percent from the previous month.
“Demand for domestic electronics production remain at historic levels. Despite record orders in recent months, monthly shipments have been declining because of supply constraints and parts availability,” said Shawn DuBravac, IPC’s chief economist. “For the first month in several months, shipments rose in June, suggesting some shortages are starting to abate. But the market remains in disequilibrium -- EMS orders are roughly 15 percent above 2019 levels but shipments are 13 percent lower compared with the same time period.”
Detailed Data Available
Companies that participate in IPC’s North American EMS Statistical Program have access to detailed findings on EMS sales growth by type of production and company size tier, order growth and backlogs by company size tier, vertical market growth, the EMS book-to-bill ratio, 3-month and 12-month sales outlooks, and other timely data.
Interpreting the Data
The book-to-bill ratios are calculated by dividing the value of orders booked over the past three months by the value of sales billed during the same period from companies in IPC’s survey sample. A ratio of more than 1.00 suggests that current demand is ahead of supply, which is a positive indicator for sales growth over the next three to twelve months. A ratio of less than 1.00 indicates the reverse.
Year-on-year and year-to-date growth rates provide the most meaningful view of industry growth. Month-to-month comparisons should be made with caution as they reflect seasonal effects and short-term volatility. Because bookings tend to be more volatile than shipments, changes in the book-to-bill ratios from month to month might not be significant unless a trend of more than three consecutive months is apparent. It is also important to consider changes in both bookings and shipments to understand what is driving changes in the book-to-bill ratio.
IPC’s monthly EMS industry statistics are based on data provided by a representative sample of assembly equipment manufacturers selling in the USA and Canada. IPC publishes the EMS book-to-bill ratio by the end of each month.
IPC announced today the June 2021 findings from its North American Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Statistical Program. The book-to-bill ratio stands at 1.15.
Total North American PCB shipments in June 2021 were up 6.3 percent compared to the same month last year. Compared to the preceding month, June shipments grew 17.3 percent.
PCB bookings in June rose 19.4 percent year-over-year. Bookings in June increased 28.9 percent from the previous month.
“We saw strong PCB orders in June, outstripping any month since early 2006. The electronics supply remains constrained and companies continue to look for any available capacity,” said Shawn DuBravac, IPC’s chief economist. “Shipments also picked up strongly during the month, suggesting some disruptions are starting to improve and companies are increasingly able to fulfill incoming orders.”
Detailed Data Available
Companies that participate in IPC’s North American PCB Statistical Program have access to detailed findings on rigid PCB and flexible circuit sales and orders, including separate rigid and flex book-to-bill ratios, growth trends by product types and company size tiers, demand for prototypes, sales growth to military and medical markets, and other timely data.
Interpreting the Data
The book-to-bill ratios are calculated by dividing the value of orders booked over the past three months by the value of sales billed during the same period from companies in IPC’s survey sample. A ratio of more than 1.00 suggests that current demand is ahead of supply, which is a positive indicator for sales growth over the next three to twelve months. A ratio of less than 1.00 indicates the reverse.
Year-on-year and year-to-date growth rates provide the most meaningful view of industry growth. Month-to-month comparisons should be made with caution as they reflect seasonal effects and short-term volatility. Because bookings tend to be more volatile than shipments, changes in the book-to-bill ratios from month to month might not be significant unless a trend of more than three consecutive months is apparent. It is also important to consider changes in both bookings and shipments to understand what is driving changes in the book-to-bill ratio.
IPC’s monthly PCB industry statistics are based on data provided by a representative sample of both rigid PCB and flexible circuit manufacturers selling in the USA and Canada. IPC publishes the PCB book-to-bill ratio by the end of each month.
Hundreds of IPC standards development committee members will converge upon the Milwaukee Center in downtown Milwaukee, Wis., August 28-September 2, 2021 for IPC SummerCom. These standards development meetings mark the first time committee members have met face to face since February 2020.
Standards development committee members will meet to discuss a range of topics including assembly and joining, base materials, cleaning and coating, embedded devices, environment, health and safety, printed board design technology, printed electronics, product reliability, testing, wearable electronics/e-textiles, and more.
“Electronics industry professionals are an integral part of the IPC standards development process and we rely on their experience and expertise to develop IPC standards that help ensure superior quality, reliability and consistency in electronics manufacturing,” said David Bergman, IPC vice president of standards and technology. “Newcomers and industry veterans are welcome to attend SummerCom 2021. Though we’re dealing with travel bans, it’s important to keep standards development activities going and we’re looking forward to seeing as many committee members as we can in person!"
The registration fee, $130 for IPC members and $165 for nonmembers includes standards development committee meetings and an awards luncheon on Monday, August 30. For additional information or to register, visit www.ipc.org/event/ipc-summercom.
In another step forward for U.S. taxpayers, defense readiness, and the electronics industry supply chain, the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense has allocated $7.5 million for lead-free electronics R&D in FY 2022.
IPC and more than a dozen partners have been working over the last few years to stand up a $40 million, five-year initiative to tackle lead-free supply chain and technical issues in the defense and high-performance electronics sectors. We believe a public-private R&D program would yield more than $100 million in U.S. defense savings per year and improve military readiness and overall innovation. The initiative builds on the work done by the Pb-Free Electronics Risk Management (PERM) Council over its 10+ year history. More details are available in this December 2020 IPC blog post.
In a very challenging budget environment, the $7.5 million House figure signals continuing congressional interest in funding this project through completion. To date, Congress has provided a combined $15 million for this R&D in FY20 and FY21.
Congressional plus-ups are very competitive and difficult to secure. To be successful, the project needs to meet a true technical requirement, be recognized as a need of the Defense Department, and have sufficient congressional support. We have come a long way in developing support for this project within the Defense Department and the Congress, and we remain upbeat about our ability to secure the needed funding through the appropriations process or other federal partnership opportunities.
In the next round of action, IPC will continue to advocate for strong lead-free R&D funding in the Senate version of the FY22 defense appropriations bill. We will keep you posted and welcome your questions and suggestions.
IPC’s national hand soldering competitions return to Europe this year with events scheduled in France, Estonia, and Germany. Although the 2021 IPC Hand Soldering World Championship was canceled due to ongoing pandemic concerns, skilled competitors in Europe will participate in national competitions at scheduled live tradeshows.
Hand soldering competitions recognize the ability for highly skilled operators to build a functional electronics assembly within a specific time limit. Assemblies will be judged on soldering in accordance with IPC-A-610G Class 3 criteria, the speed at which the assembly was produced and overall electrical functionality of the assembly. Prizes will be awarded for the top three finishers.
The three scheduled national hand soldering competitions are:
Participation in IPC hand soldering competitions is free. Companies are asked to present a team (three competitors max.) to one of the above-listed competitions. To take part individually, contact Philippe Leonard, IPC director of European operations at PhilippeLeonard@ipc.org.
Strict pandemic protocols will be in place throughout the competitions, with participants required to adhere to specific sanitary protocols, including cleaning and social distancing.
IPC extends its thanks to its hand soldering competition sponsors: Gold Sponsors Hakko and Thalès and Silver Sponsors Optilia, The Daylight Company, Almit, IFTEC, Société Française de Microscopie, Tallinna Polütehnikum and Polygone Cao. IPC is also grateful to its local partners, IPC training center IFTEC, the Estonian Electronics Industries Association, and Tallinn Polytechnic School for their support.
Electronics is an essential component of virtually all aspects of our daily lives. With the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI), we are entering an era of connected intelligence that will make new demands on microelectronics technology. That is why it is critically important to develop within Europe advanced workforce skills related to the design and manufacturing of microelectronics. The microelectronics sector in Europe is responsible for directly 200,000 and indirectly 1,000,000 high-skilled jobs and the demand for new skills is unceasing.
A presentation developed by IPC consultant and member of IPC’s Thought Leaders program, Olivier Coulon, DECISION Etudes & Conseil, summarizes the of METIS (MicroElectronics Training Industry and Skills) Strategy which identifies the skills required for Europe to lead in the microelectronics sector. METIS was launched in November 2019 as a Sector Skills Alliance on Microelectronics to bridge the skills gap in microelectronics for a more competitive Europe and to pave the way for EU leadership in data driven technologies, enhancing high-skilled labor supply, addressing emerging skills needs and identifying jobs of the future in the era of connected intelligence. Read METIS presentation summary: https://emails.ipc.org/links/ipc-tlp-metis.pdf.
IPC and Weiss Engineering have signed a cooperative agreement to deliver industry intelligence to the European electronics community, expanding on a partnership that began in 2020.
Philippe Leonard, senior director, IPC European operations stated, “Dieter Weiss is an incredible ambassador for the European EMS industry, and we look forward to working with him to help European manufacturers build electronics better.”
IPC will continue to focus on key European verticals like automotive, defense, industrial IOT, energy, and medical, and develop standards, create educational content, and champion advocacy to help members achieve operational excellence.
“in4ma’s [Weiss Engineering’s database] European EMS market statistics have become an important part of the strategic planning process for numerous companies in the European electronics manufacturing industry,” said Sanjay Huprikar, president of Europe and South Asia operations for IPC. “Our continued partnership with Dieter is expected to facilitate the creation of more innovative tools, studies, and analyses that can help our members better leverage their opportunities to greater financial success.”
Global economic recovery is accelerating as vaccination rates increase and countries fully open their economies. We’ve raised our forecasts for growth for a number of countries including the United States, Europe, Mexico, Australia and Taiwan just to name a few. Some areas of the world continue to struggle, and we’ve lowered growth estimates for Japan, India, Indonesia and Turkey. Overall, we expect the global economy to expand 6.1 percent in 2021 and a further 4 percent in 2022.
In this month’s economic outlook report from IPC, you will find U.S. and European data on economic growth, employment, consumer sentiment, manufacturers’ sentiment (PMI), manufacturing capacity utilization and end markets for electronics.
Which government policies worry you the most?
If you’re like most IPC member company executives, you’re concerned about politics and policy and how these issues affect your company.
That’s why IPC places a high priority on government relations (GR): because so many public policy debates have significant impacts on our members. IPC is guided by your perspectives on these issues, and we advocate for a policy environment in which you can prosper.
Here is a brief overview of the strategies and tactics IPC uses to impact government policy, the key issues we’re working on today, and how you can be involved in advocating for our industry.
Strategies and Tactics
IPC’s GR work is rooted in an ongoing dialogue with members like you. For example, IPC’s North American and European GR Committees are composed of a cross-section of company executives who provide IPC with their input throughout the year. Likewise, IPC’s environmental policy priorities are determined with input from our Environment & Health Strategic Management Team (ENV SMT). We also invite all members to fill out our five-question, five-minute policy survey, or just call or write us with your concerns.
With member input in hand, IPC’s GR staff reaches out and communicates directly with key policy makers, presenting the best case for our positions. To the extent we can provide strong, relevant industry data and present the impact to the industry, we increase the likelihood that the final policies enacted will be supportive of the industry.
IPC also facilitates direct communications between you and your government officials, whether it is through in-person or virtual meetings. IPC also coordinates in-person or virtual visits by government officials to IPC member facilities – so that when IPC’s interests are at stake in policy debates, we already have local relationships for support.
Specifically in the United States, another way how IPC engages politically is through the IPC Political Action Committee (IPC PAC). Under U.S. law, PACs are transparent, regulated entities in which citizens with common interests come together to support political candidates with financial contributions to their campaigns. The IPC PAC supports pro-manufacturing candidates from both parties in Congress.
On the regulatory front, IPC continuously monitors the rules being developed at agencies like EPA and OSHA in the United States and DG ENV in the European Union. We provide timely information to both government officials, to help inform their decisions, and to IPC members, so that you can make informed business decisions.
Finally, we build public support for our positions. For example, IPC cultivates helpful, accurate news coverage by the media, and we engage on social media – all with the goal of building broader public support for our policy agenda.
IPC’s Policy Agenda
In the United States, the policy agenda is currently being driven by the new president, Joe Biden, and IPC’s policy agenda is contained in a letter we sent to President Biden in March. The letter outlines policy recommendations in five key areas, including:
In May, IPC sent a follow-up letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, signed by 57 industry executives, focusing on the need to bolster the entire electronics manufacturing ecosystem, not just a few parts of it.
Across the Atlantic, the European “Green Deal” and the European Commission’s Industrial Strategy are providing the major frameworks for EU policy today, with an emphasis on “open strategic autonomy” and a greener, more digital future. An IPC report published in April outlines our policy recommendations there, including:
In the Asia-Pacific region, IPC plans to establish a GR program soon, although we do currently monitor and track environmental regulatory developments to keep our members informed.
Success Stories
How do IPC members benefit from these activities? Here are just a few examples:
In short, IPC advocacy helps make the electronics industry stronger and more profitable.
Here’s Where You Come In
The IPC government relations team is here for you year-round, but the success of our work depends on the active engagement of IPC members. We invite you to join our efforts in one of the following ways:
IPC works hard to educate policy makers and advocate for our industry, and the more our members our involved, the greater the impact we will have and the more successful we will be. Will you join us?