SEMI's August Book-To-Bill Falls Below Estimates

A book-to-bill of 0.91 means that $91 worth of new orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month. The SEMI book-to-bill is a ratio of three-month moving average bookings to three-month moving average billings for the North American semiconductor equipment industry.

The 0.91 figure was far below analysts' estimates and indicates that the chip-equipment market remains depressed. North American semiconductor-equipment makers were expected to reach parity and post a book-to-bill ratio of 1.01 for August, according to a new report issued this week by Berean Capital, a Chicago-based investment banking firm.

The market remains in the doldrums. VLSI Research lowered its forecast for the chip-equipment market in 2003, saying the business will be flat when compared to 2002.

"Overall bookings and billings figures for North American-based semiconductor capital equipment providers have remained essentially flat over the past several months," Dan Tracy, director of industry research and statistics for SEMI, said in a statement.

"Indicators such as increasing utilization of IC manufacturing capacity and growth in semiconductor markets point to more favorable conditions for equipment makers," he said. "However, they have not yet translated into significant improvement in orders or sales."

The three-month average of worldwide bookings in August was $721 million. The bookings figure is 2 percent above the revised July level of $707 million and 29 percent below the $1.02 billion in orders posted in August 2002.

The three-month average of worldwide billings in August was $789.9 million. The billings figure is slightly above the revised July level of $785.9 million and 21 percent below the August 2002 billings level of $995 million.

This story courtesy of Techweb.