North American-based manufacturers of posted $1.22 billion in orders in January on a three-month average basis, a monthly rise of 4 percent and a 66 percent year-over-year gain.

That's the word from Silicon Valley-based consortium Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI), which published its book-to-bill figures today for North American-based process tool vendors. The book-to-bill ratio came in at 1.18, as those suppliers posted billings, or shipments for which they recognized revenue, of $1.04 billion in January, on a three-month rolling average.

The billings figure is 8 percent above the revised December 2003 level of $963 million and 33 percent above the January 2003 billings level of $784 million.

December's finalized book-to-bill ratio was 1.23; the ratio dropped slightly as suppliers began to recognize revenue from previous shipments.

"Order levels for new semiconductor manufacturing equipment have improved significantly from a year ago," Stan Myers, president and CEO of SEMI, said in statement. "SEMI members have seen six months of sequential improvement in total equipment orders and capital spending is expected to remain strong into 2004 as a broadbased industry recovery continues." SEMI's book-to-bill finally reached above parity back in October of last year, after flirting with it for a number of months.

Market research company VLSI Research Inc. also published its book-to-bill figures for equipment vendors on a global basis in January, finding a similar book-to-bill ratio of 1.19.

By: DocMemory
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