SEMI Book-to-Bill Up Again
Staff Reporter -- EDN, May 19, 2006
The book-to-bill ratio for North American based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment grew to 1.11 in April, marking another month in its steady ascent over the last five months, according to Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI).
The 1.11 book-to-bill ratio means that $111 worth of orders was received for every $100 of product billed for the month. Any number over 1.0 is viewed as a positive sign for the industry.
The SEMI book-to-bill is a ratio of three-month moving averages of worldwide bookings and billings for North American-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers.
The three-month average of worldwide bookings in April 2006 was $1.60 billion. The bookings figure is almost 16 percent higher than the final March 2006 level of $1.39 billion and over 60 percent higher than the $999 million in orders posted in April 2005.
The three-month average of worldwide billings in April 2006 was $1.45 billion. The billings figure is 8 percent above the final March 2006 level of $1.34 billion and almost 17 percent above the April 2005 billings level of $1.24 billion.
"The book-to-bill continues into its 5th consecutive month of growth, and third over parity," said Stanley T. Myers, president and CEO of SEMI, in a statement.
"This continued trend points to increasing confidence in the market and a healthy year over year billings growth in 2006,” he added
SEMI plans to release May’s book-to-bill ratio for North American-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment on June 15.
SEMI April 2006 Bookings & Billings
|
Billings*
(Three-month avg.) |
Bookings*
(Three-month avg.) |
Book-to-Bill | |
|
November 2005 |
1,179.7 |
1,093.2 |
0.93 |
|
December 2005 |
1,223.6 |
1,142.7 |
0.93 |
|
January 2006 |
1,259.4 |
1,225.9 |
0.97 |
|
February 2006 |
1,283.3 |
1,293.2 |
1.01 |
|
March 2006 (final) |
1,338.7 |
1,385.3 |
1.03 |
April 2006 (prelim.) |
1,448.5 |
1,602.4 |
1.11 |
*Billings and bookings figures are in millions of U.S. dollars.
