There was optimism for electronic components sales sentiment for 2024 based on December results of the Electronic Component Sales Trends (ECST) survey from the Electronic Components Industry Association (ECIA).
And those expectations were delivered in the January ECST survey with all areas showing strong improvement in index scores for January results. The better news is that the upward trend is expected to continue in February.
The overall index jumped more than 20 points to finish at 98, the highest level it's been in 21 months. 100 is the threshold for reaching growth, according to the ECIA.
ECST survey respondents expected the overall index to improve an additional 9.4 points to break above 100 and reach 107.4 in February.
Strong growth
Among the three major segments, all had strong growth.
Semiconductors leaped nearly 39 points to reach 105; while electro-mechanical components and passive components achieved double digit index score improvements in January, ECIA said.
However, both sectors fell short of expectations with 20 and 17 points below the expected growth from the December index, respectively. Semiconductors, meanwhile, exceeded expectations by more than 24 points.
The February outlook indicates semiconductors to improve their score to 117, electro-mechanical components to reach 105, and passives delivering the strongest improvement in the index for February with an improvement of 11.8, just leaving it short of the 100 threshold at 98.8.
Caution ahead
ECIA said that the forecasts should be met with caution for February as the index has only surpassed this type of performance twice in its history. The last time was in September of 2020
Prior to this leap in the index followed the crash in the index score of 59 points between February and May of 2020. This could be described as a rebound from the COVID impact while the current period is behaving more as a recovery phase from the 1.5-year slump.
End market performance
The ECST survey for January showed that avionics/military/space, medical and industrial sectors all scored above 100 points.
ECIA said the projection for February for end-markets shows that every market, except telecom mobile phones, will achieve scores above 100 in February. The overall end-market index is forecast to reach 103.1 in February.
About the ECIA ECST report
The ECST survey provides highly valuable and detailed visibility on industry expectations in the near-term through the monthly and quarterly surveys. This “immediate” perspective is helpful to participants up and down the electronics components supply chain. In the long-term, ECIA shares in the optimism for the future as the continued introduction and market adoption of exciting innovative technologies should motivate both corporate and consumer demand for next-generation products over the long term.
The complete ECIA ECST report is delivered to all ECIA members as well as others who participate in the survey. All participants in the electronics component supply chain are invited and encouraged to participate in the report so they can see the highly valuable insights provided by the ECST report.
The monthly and quarterly ECST reports present data in detailed tables and figures with multiple perspectives and covering current sales expectations, sales outlook, product cancellations, product decommits and product lead times. The data is presented at a detailed level for six major electronic component categories, six semiconductor subcategories and eight end markets. Also, survey results are segmented by aggregated responses from manufacturers, distributors and manufacturer representatives.
Interested in reading the entire ECST report? Click here for more info.
