Thursday, November 21, 2002
Worldwide equipment billings amounted to $2.2 billion in October and bookings were at $1.9 billion, resulting in a book-to-bill 0.86, according to a report released today from VLSI Research Inc.
That represents a sequential billings dip of 30 percent and the lowest revenue VLSI has recorded in the second half of 2002. Meanwhile, October's billings were 15 percent higher than the September 2001 level.
Of the total billings in October, $1.3 billion were for wafer processing equipment, $440 million for test and related equipment, $120 million for assembly, and $340 million for service and spares.
For ICs, the book-to-bill ratio has been below 1.0 since June, said VLSI, adding that the three-month rolling average for chips dropped to 0.87 in October from 0.91 in September.
October bookings were at $9.4 billion and billings were at $10.8 billion.
Front-end capacity utilization has been sliding down from the peak of 87 percent in June and that won't come change any time soon, according to the market researcher.
Utilization was at 84 percent in October and is expected to drop to 79 percent in November as IC makers continue to cut production to raise prices. At the same time, companies are adding capacity inexpensively by converting existing capacity to tighter CDs, but not production, and relying on equipment discounts, pushing order cancellations and then rebooking at lower prices, VLSI said.
The worldwide equipment ratio is expected to be unchanged at about 0.86 in November, while the IC Book-to-bill is also expected to be flat at 0.87 in November, when bookings are forecasted at $9.67 billion and billings at $11 billion.
By: DocMemory
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