SEMI: March book-to-bill shows continued market stability

By Suzanne Deffree, News Editor -- Electronic News, 4/20/2007

SEMI today published its March book-to-bill with numbers that the industry association’s CEO believes show market consistency.

On a three-month average basis, North American-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.42 billion in orders in March and a book-to-bill ratio of 1.00, according to SEMI. A book-to-bill of 1.00 means that $100 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month, therefore, both the three-month average of worldwide bookings and billings for the month were at $1.42 billion.

The March bookings figure is more than 1 percent higher than the final February level of $1.4 billion and more than 2 percent above the $1.39 billion in orders posted in March 2006. The March billings figure was even with the final February level and 6 percent higher than the March 2006 billings level of $1.34 billion.

“Bookings improved slightly in March, while there was a small decline in billings when compared to February,” said Stanley T. Myers, president and CEO of SEMI, in a statement. “Updated figures show relative equilibrium of orders and shipments over the past few months, reflecting continued market stability for North American providers of chip making equipment."

March’s book-to-bill report comes from SEMI just days after the group revamped its January and February figures. The new numbers show a January book-to-bill of 1.0, down from SEMI’s original statement of a book-to-bill ratio of 1.04. The new February numbers show a book-to-bill ratio of 0.98, down from SEMI’s original 1.05.