Component orders rise in January.The monthly order index compiled by the Electronic Components, Assemblies and Materials Association (ECA ECA See: Export Credit Agency , Arlington, VA, www.ec-central.org) moved upward in January, confirming industry optimism during the last four months. "The index has been moving up steadily," said Bob Willis Robert ("Bob") George Dylan Willis (born in Sunderland 30 May 1949) is a former cricketer who played for Surrey, Warwickshire, Northern Transvaal and England. He adopted his second middle name "Dylan" by deed poll in honour of his idol Bob Dylan. , ECA president. "It's not the meteoric me·te·or·ic adj. 1. Of, relating to, or formed by a meteoroid. 2. Of or relating to the earth's atmosphere. 3. boom of the late 1990s, but we might never see that again. This is nice, manageable growth that looks like it will be sustained throughout the year." Willis says recent news substantiates the upward trend that has been seen in the ECA order index during the last four months. For instance, ECA members, such as Vishay Intertechnology, Littelfuse and KEMET, reported substantial revenue increases in Q4 2003 compared to Q4 2002. Also, Reuters reports that major electronics manufacturing services Electronic manufacturing services (EMS) is term used for companies that design, test, manufacture, distribute and provide return/repair services for electronic component and assemblies for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). (EMS) companies are seeing stronger demand in 2004, helped by an improving economy and a trend to outsource personal computers, servers, cell phones, handheld computers and other electronics gear. RELATED ARTICLE: January 2004 Book-to-Bill The North American North American named after North America. North American blastomycosis see North American blastomycosis. North American cattle tick see boophilusannulatus. IMS/PCB Industry Book-to-Bill Ratio Book-to-Bill Ratio The technology industry's demand-to-supply ratio for orders on a "firm's book" to number of orders filled. Notes: This ratio tells whether the company has more orders than it can deliver (if greater than 1), has the same amount of orders that it can for January 2004 remained positive at 1.08. The ratio is calculated by averaging the index numbers for orders booked over the past three months and dividing by the average index numbers for sales billed during the same period. A ratio of more than 1.00 suggests that current demand is ahead of supply, which indicates probable near-term growth. Industry sales billed (shipments) in January 2004 increased 28.4% from January 2003, and orders booked increased 19.8% from January 2003. Jan. '03 1.02 Feb. '03 1.03 Mar. '03 1.04 Apr. '03 0.97 May '03 1.00 June '03 1.02 July '03 1.04 Aug. '03 1.14 Sept. '03 1.15 Oct. '03 1.18 Nov. '03 1.13 Dec. '03 1.11 Jan. '04 1.08 Note: Table made from bar graph. |
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