New orders in the electronics industry during September sparked a sharp rise in business activity, lifting the Electronics Buyers’ News Quest Index to 47.8 from its all-time low of 45 in August, the newspaper reports. A military booster hot from the Persian Gulf crisis was a prime factor in the rush of new orders, according to responses from the 500 or so electronics-company purchasing managers surveyed. New orders were also set up in the commercial electronics sector, leading all other Quest Index components with a 5.7 gain to 45.9, its highest level since June, but still substantially below the 50-line between decline and growth. Spurred by the new orders, production picked up 3.8 points to 50.9, its highest point since March. As purchasers bought more electronic materials for increased production, that index rose 3.6 points to 48, according to the report. Vendor deliveries, at 55.2, and production were the only two components above 50 in September. Last month prices were higher for integrated circuits, connector and copper wire, and lower for dynamic and static RAMs, software, disk drives and graphic cards. Connectors, integrated circuits, diodes, plastics, sheet metal, transformers and transistors were scarce.
