Worldwide equipment revenues grew 24 percent to $11.9 billion in Q1, following sequential increases of 16 percent in Q3 of 2003 and 14 percent in Q4, VLSI Research Inc. reported Tuesday.

The growth in process tool sales came primarily from chipmakers adding capacity, but was also partly driven by the end of the Japanese fiscal year in March, which usually brings a peak to the Japanese buying cycle, according to the Silicon Valley based market research firm. Even with order activity slowing down, the industry will not need much more impetus to achieve a 56 percent growth for the year, VLSI said.

The market research firm predicts that Q2 revenues will in fact decline for tool vendors following the end of the Japanese fiscal year and buying cycle. If not, the semi equipment industry is in danger of repeating the boom/bust cycle of 2000, achieving two years' worth of growth in one, VLSI warned ¨C a scenario its analysts have been worried about for the past several months.

On a monthly basis, April revenues for equipment vendors worldwide dropped 30 percent from March, but were still 56 percent above the year ago period. Bookings were down 25 percent from March, but were again almost 80 percent above the previous year's level. 

The April book-to-bill ratio was 1.11 as a result, following seven consecutive months of B:B ratios above parity. Meanwhile fab capacity utilization rate was down from March's level of 88.5 percent to 87 percent, VLSI said.

VLSI's equipment book-to-bill figure, which represents worldwide bookings and billings for a single month, should not be confused with the book-to-bill figures presented monthly by Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International, which is a three-month rolling average of orders and shipments North American based suppliers.

By: DocMemory
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