Market research firm VLSI Research Inc. reported Wednesday that chip equipment sales were up 10 percent month over month in June while orders were up 14.5 percent.

Billings, or shipments, totaled $4.4 billion last month, while orders reached $4.9 billion for suppliers around the globe. That would give the entire industry a book-to-bill ratio of 1.11 for June.

The industry finished the first half of 2004 with flying colors VLSI said, citing tool vendors' $24.4 billion in revenues, which were 59 percent higher than the first half of 2003.

Equipment bookings were solid and were 76 percent higher than in the same period a year ago, VLSI said. It forecasts equipment revenues to grow 68 percent this year.
 
While front-end capacity utilization cooled off somewhat in June, after three straight months of close to 100 utilization rates, the market research firm nevertheless anticipates utilization rates to hover above 95 percent for the rest of 2004.

Utilizations rates were at 99.7 percent in May, and dropped to 98.9 percent last month, according to VLSI's preliminary figures. It anticipates July's utilization rate to come in at 98.1 percent.

By: DocMemory
Copyright © 2023 CST, Inc. All Rights Reserved