How Broad Is the Electronics Recovery?

Strong industry totals can hide very different conditions for individual suppliers. Here is where the improvement is reaching, and what it means for your next decision.

A growing electronics market can still leave most suppliers with a softer month.

In August, the Taiwan-listed PCB companies tracked by TPCA reported combined revenue of NT$105.4 billion, up 40.9% from a year earlier and 5.3% from July. Yet only 16 of the 39 companies increased revenue from the previous month. Most reported a sequential decline. [1]

Both readings are true. The industry total rose, while improvement from July was concentrated in fewer companies.

That distinction matters when deciding whether to add capacity, build inventory or pursue new customers. The scale of a recovery tells you how much the market is growing. Its breadth tells you how widely that growth is reaching.

Our assessment: the evidence supports a substantial but uneven recovery. Participation is broad within Taiwan PCBs, while order momentum and end-market volumes send a more mixed message.

 

PCB growth reaches many companies, at very different speeds

Our count of TPCA’s August company table shows that 34 of 39 PCB makers grew year over year. This is meaningful participation across the group. But only 16 exceeded the aggregate growth rate of 40.9%. [1]

Among the ten largest makers, Dynamic grew 84.0% year over year, Gold Circuit Electronics 76.4% and Tripod 65.5%. Compeq grew 6.9%. [1]

The gap is commercially significant. Product mix and customer exposure deserve close attention when a supplier’s growth differs sharply from the industry average.

One month of sequential weakness does not establish a downturn. It does, however, make an important distinction: broad year-over-year growth and broad month-to-month acceleration are separate tests.

U.S. components show improvement, with modest order pressure

U.S. Census data offer evidence of strengthening component activity. Through August, electronic component orders were up 9.0% from the same period in 2025, while shipments increased 6.5%. [2, 3]

August seasonally adjusted orders reached $5.77 billion against shipments of $5.63 billion. Using the June–August data, the average of the three monthly orders-to-shipments ratios was 1.023. Orders ran about 2.3% above shipments on that measure. [2, 3]

That supports a positive reading, though the excess is modest. An above-one ratio identifies order pressure relative to current shipments; it does not measure how many end markets are expanding.

The shipment mix reinforces the uneven picture. January–August nondefense communications equipment shipments grew 25.9%, and defense search and navigation equipment grew 14.5%. Audio and video equipment shipments fell 9.8%. [3]

These are dollar measures. Pricing and product mix can contribute to growth alongside unit demand.

North American PCB shipments and bookings tell different stories

North American PCB shipments rose 23.5% year over year in August and 5.2% from July. Year-to-date shipments increased 15.5%. [4]

New bookings pulled back after July’s surge. August bookings fell 35.0% year over year, although year-to-date bookings remained up 38.7%. The three-month book-to-bill ratio stood at 1.29. [4]

The combination supports continued strength in shipments, with less convincing evidence of fresh order acceleration. Shipments can reflect orders placed earlier, so improving deliveries and softer new bookings can coexist.

For a manufacturer, the useful question is whether incoming orders will replenish the work being shipped. Watch the booking trend alongside shipments and backlog before extending August’s shipment growth into a capacity forecast.

Smartphone volumes show the limits of the recovery

Omdia’s final second-quarter estimates put global smartphone shipments at 272.0 million units, down 6% year over year. Within that declining market, Samsung’s shipments rose 5% and Apple’s rose 23%, while Xiaomi fell 26%. [5]

Omdia identifies elevated memory costs and supply pressures as important contributors to the market’s weakness. Stronger upstream revenue therefore does not automatically translate into more finished devices shipped.

For suppliers, the vendor split matters as much as the market total. Exposure to a growing customer can produce a very different result from exposure to a shrinking one, even within the same end market.

What decision makers should do with this picture

Build capacity around confirmed demand in the markets you serve. Compare the industry signal with customer schedules, repeat orders and backlog conversion. A strong aggregate supports looking for opportunities; customer evidence determines where to commit.

Plan inventory by product family. Separate items supported by repeat demand from those dependent on a handful of large orders. Give supplier lead times and customer consumption more weight than an industry-wide growth rate.

Measure participation alongside revenue. Track how many customers or product lines are growing, and how much of your increase comes from the largest accounts. Rising revenue with narrowing participation calls for a different plan than growth shared across the customer base.

The next confirmation would be repeated improvement across more suppliers, sustained new bookings and stronger unit demand in the end markets that remain weak. If those signals strengthen together, the case for wider expansion becomes more compelling. If totals keep rising while participation weakens, concentrate investment where demand is already demonstrated.

The recovery offers real opportunity. Capturing it depends on knowing which part of the industry is recovering, and whether that improvement is reaching your customers.

Custer Consulting Group’s Business Outlook connects orders, shipments and supplier performance to the markets your business serves. Contact us to discuss what the cycle means for your company.

Sources and measurement notes

1. TPCA, August 2026 PCB company revenue table. Company counts calculated by Custer Consulting Group from the 39 published rows. Figures represent consolidated revenue of the listed companies tracked, including production outside Taiwan; they are not a measure of output located in Taiwan. Counts give each company equal weight; aggregate revenue reflects company size.
2. U.S. Census Bureau, August 2026 M3 new orders, Table 2, released October 2, 2026.
3. U.S. Census Bureau, August 2026 M3 shipments, Table 1. Component ratio uses the arithmetic average of June, July and August monthly orders divided by shipments, matching the Business Outlook chart. Monthly levels are seasonally adjusted; year-to-date comparisons use Census’s published unadjusted totals. Values are not adjusted for price changes.
4. Global Electronics Association, North American PCB results for August 2026, released September 30, 2026. Book-to-bill divides three months of bookings by three months of billings in the survey sample. Monthly bookings are volatile.
5. Omdia, final second-quarter 2026 global smartphone results, July 30, 2026. Shipments measure sell-in units, not retail sell-through. These indicators cover different markets and periods and are assessed together rather than combined into one global breadth index.