ECIA’s December Electronic Component Sales Trend (ECST) survey has revealed a significant jump in optimism, representing an extremely healthy start to the year.
Following a year of overall index scores languishing between 72.2 and 90.6, respondents to the December Electronic Component Sales Trend (ECST) survey are suddenly and strikingly optimistic in their expectations for January 2024 which shot up by 27.8 points, hitting an average of 105.6 points.
The sentiment index result for December came in at 77.8, 5.5 points below the already modest outlook of 83.3 for December as reported in the November survey. For the full year 2023, no major component segments achieved a score at or above 100 which would have indicated positive sales growth sentiment.
ECIA’s chief analyst, Dale Ford, said: “If this projected growth is actually realized in January it would be the strongest month-to-month growth in the history of the index, with the exception of one month in June 2020. As always, some caution in expectations is prudent given previous disappointments in index results falling below expectations. However, even if the index achieves half of the forecast improvement in January, it will represent an extremely healthy start to the year.”
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.