North American PCB Industry Turnaround Shown in New IPC Report

IPC’s 2019 Annual Report on the North American PCB Industry, published last week, shows that the PCB industry in North America has turned a corner. For the first time in five years, domestic PCB production grew in 2018. North America’s PCB market also grew last year by nearly eight percent, solidifying the turnaround that began in 2017.

Other key findings include the breakdown of vertical markets for PCBs, showing that PCBs for military and aerospace, and medical devices and instrumentation markets make up the lion’s share of both rigid PCB and flexible circuit markets in North America.

The report contains current estimates of PCB domestic production value from Prismark Partners and shows historical trends in the size and growth of PCB markets. Data from IPC’s North American PCB Statistical Program cover 2018 sales and order growth by board type and company size tier, vertical market sizes, prototype sales growth and percentages of PCBs with special technologies including RF, metal core and embedded components. Other industry data include revenue per employee, capacity utilization, production capacity expansion and planned 2019 expansion, inventory turns and lead times.

PCB fabricators use this annual report to see what product types are gaining or declining in the marketplace, update estimates of their market share and compare their business performance to industry averages. For PCB industry suppliers and customers, the PCB market is a useful gauge of trends and growth in electronics manufacturing.

The 2019 Annual Report on the North American PCB Industry, priced at $450 for IPC members and $900 for nonmembers, is available for download in IPC’s online store. Information about IPC market research reports and services is at www.ipc.org/market-research-reports.