Thursday, August 21, 2008

Printed Circuit Boards Up Consumer Confidence Down

Electronic Design Magazine reports.

US consumer confidence fell to its lowest level in 28 years in the month of June, amidst high energy costs and rising joblessness. US new orders for computer and electronic products dipped in June with US economy registering a lower retail sale when compared to the month of May.

However printed circuit board (PCB), semiconductor and electronics manufacturing services (EMS) shipments continued their upward momentum. The long-term outlook for the EMS industry remains positive with ever increasing global demand for consumer electronics.
That is interesting. In the past when times were tough the entertainment budget was the first to be clipped. It appears that that is the case in the US. However, the low value of the dollar encourages US exports. How much longer that will last with the US dollar rising is a question. Time will give us the answer.

A lot of electronics is used for manufacturing. However, it is not enough to drive the market. The big drivers are cell phones, computers, and entertainment devices.

1 comment:

Neil said...

I'd say it's mostly because PCB manufacturing/assembly is coming back to the U.S.

It's not always easy to do quality control and design handoff with a board house in Taiwan. If the prices are anywhere in the ballpark, 'druther do it close by.

Bet I'm not the only one who thinks that way, so the U.S. board houses are now able to move downmarket from high-cost/high-reliability/high-secrecy items.

Neil