Industry Expert Blogs

Electronics markets bounced back strongly in 2010 from the 2008-2009 recession. The recovery stalled in 2011 as a series of natural and human-made disasters hit various parts of the world. Japan was hit by an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. Thailand was affected by floods which disrupted HDD production and thus impacted PC production throughout the world. The European financial crisis led to economic weakness in most of the European Union (EU).

Recent government data on electronic production and orders shows most regions are beginning to recover from the 2011 slowdown. The chart below shows three-month-average change versus a year ago in local currency for electronics orders (U.S. and EU) and production (China and Japan). The data is through May 2012, except for the EU which ist hrough April. China continues to show the most robust growth, with double digit growth since the beginning of 2010. U.S. electronics orders experienced 12 months of year-to-year declines from March 2011 through January 2012, but turned positive in February 2012, reaching 6% growth in May. Japan electronics production change was negative for 16 months, with declines greater than 20% for six of those months. In May 2012, Japan electronics production turned positive at 2.3%. EU electronics orders remain weak, with April 2012 the twelfth consecutive month of year-to-year declines.

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