The German electrical and electronics industry trade association PCB and Electronic Systems reported that in April the German printed circuit board manufacturers achieved a 14 percent increase in total sales compared with the same month of the previous year. However, compared with March 2011 total sales were down by twelve percent. Cumulated over the first four months of the year total sales were up 20 percent on the same period of the previous year. In April total sales per working day were one fifth more than the average value for the last decade.

Due to the current volatile order situation in the solar industry the number of new orders received by the printed circuit board industry in April fell by almost a third compared to the previous month and compared to April 2010. In April the book-to-bill ratio achieved a value of 0.73. The Central Association of the German Electrical and Electronics Industry (ZVEI) does not expect this value to increase significantly in the next few months.