The Printed Circuit Board Industry Association (VdL) and the German electrical and electronics industry trade association Electronic Components and Systems (ZVEI) analysed the June results of the German printed circuit board manufacturers. According to this analysis sales had improved by 10 percent compared with May. However, this sales figure is still more than a third less than the figure for June 2008 which was relatively strong. Both the German electrical and electronics industry and the Printed Circuit Board Industry Association believe that this indicates that the bottom of the economic cycle has been reached.

The number of new orders was unusually low and only reached half of the ten year average. This was a drop of two thirds compared with the same month of the previous year. The number of new orders in June 2008 was, however, very good. Approximately half of the companies reported a minimal increase in new orders compared with the previous month. However, they all noticed that orders were being transferred to Asia. The underutilisation there at the beginning of the year had led to very aggressive competition. In addition long-term delivery plans which are common in the Automotive and Industry Electronics sector were decreased. This was because the sustainable recovery of the markets which had been hoped for had still not occurred.

The book-to-bill ratio which is used as a trend indicator reached a value of 0.60 which is the lowest value since the introduction of these statistics. The number of workers changed only slightly compared with the previous month (May). The reduction in the number of personnel can be seen more clearly when compared to the beginning of the year. Since January the number of jobs has been cut by 15 percent. Compared with June 2008 this is a loss of circa 21 percent. However, lots of companies are still attempting to retain staff through reduced working hours.