Survey reveals dynamic outlook for equipment manufacturers

Most participating companies reported the current direction for sales, orders and profit margins as going up. For the next six months, they predict increasing growth for sales, production, markets, exports, capital investment and number of full-time employees. The 12 month business outlook is positive according to 87.5% of the responding companies.

IPC is developing the Pulse of the Electronics Industry global data service to provide a quarterly outlook for the electronics industry overall, as well as by region, industry segment and company size. The programme is in the final stage of beta testing. More than 100 companies participated in the preliminary third-quarter 2017 survey and participants received a comprehensive report on the results.

The fourth-quarter survey is now online and the deadline has been extended to 3rd November. Electronics industry executives with knowledge of their companies’ performance are eligible to participate. The survey is brief and easy for company management to answer, and there is no cost to participate. All eligible participants who complete the survey by 3rd November will receive a report on the findings.

This is an opportunity for executives to sample the programme before committing to participation in 2018 when it is officially launched in January. Participants in the current development phase are instrumental in launching this new service that IPC is designing to benefit the industry.

The confidential survey is at IPCPulseQ42017 and requires that participants enter their IPC company ID number, which is one of the tools IPC uses to protect the confidentiality of participants' data.