MUNICH; Germany — Despite a slight improvement on the revenue side in July, the German PCB industry is in for tough times: The order entry has declined substantially.

According to the PCB industry association figures, the industry in July booked a 3 percent increase in sales over the month before. Compared with the same month a year ago, the revenue declined slightly (0.3 percent). Adjusted for working days during the month, revenues increased in the reporting month as well as cumulated over the first seven months, compared to the respective results in 2007.

Nevertheless, it looks like the industry downturn has arrived in the German PCB industry after a longer-than-expected period of consecutive successes. Order entry is clearly on the way down. While the industry association points out that the orders received since the beginning of the year are 3 percent higher than in the past year, order entry in July fell by 20 percent. The book-to-bill ratio plummeted to 0.82, as low as it ever has been over the last three years. In March, this key figure was as high as 1.13.