Both the Printed Circuit Board Industry Association (VdL) and the German electrical and electronics industry trade association Electronic Components and Systems (ZVEI) analysed the August results of the German printed circuit board manufacturers. They reported that sales had fallen by 8.9 percent compared with the same month of the previous year. Cumulated sales for 2009 were 37 percent down on the same period of the previous year. In many companies reduced working hours are continuing to limit achievable production.

Compared with the unusually high number of orders received in July new orders in August fell by almost 30 percent. Compared with August of the previous year orders were down by almost 25 percent. Build-up of new orders is still very slow. The book-to-bill ratio, a medium-term trend indicator, reached 0.96. As a result of restructuring measures and closures the number of employees fell by 25 percent compared with the same month of the previous year.