Connector sales grow nearly 10% in 2003
Staff -- Purchasing, 2/19/2004 2:00:00 AM
Connector sales increased 9.7% to $25.4 billion in 2003, according to industry researcher Bishop and Associates. Sales increased in all regions of the world except Europe where connector revenue declined 0.5 percent. In the U.S., connector sales increased only 0.4% while in China sales rose a hefty 23.1%.
Connector demand from computer and peripheral manufacturers increased 9.7%, rising from $6 billion in 2002 to $6.65 billion in 2003. Connector shipments to the medical equipment industry rose 17.3% from $557 million to $653.5 billion.
The connector book-to-bill ratio for the year averaged 1.03. Its ratio was also 1.03 for December. That means for every $100 of connectors orders that shipped, connector manufacturers received $103 in new orders.
Orders for December increased 33.7% from November, but the book-to-bill ratio declined from 1.09 in November. Ron Bishop, president of Bishop and Associates, says there is still plenty of unused manufacturing capacity for connectors and order leadtimes remain short. Order backlog will not build significantly until the book-to-bill ratio increases to 1.20, according to Bishop. He estimates that connector prices eroded about 5% overall in 2003. Average price erosion for the industry is normally about 3-5%.
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