SEMI: North American equipment book-to-bill rises slightly

By Ann Steffora Mutschler, Senior Editor -- 12/21/2007

Winding up a slowing year, and heading into what many believe will be an even slower 2008 particularly when in comes to semiconductor equipment investments, North American-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.15 billion in orders in November on a three-month average basis, with a book-to-bill ratio of 0.82 according to industry association SEMI’s Book-to-Bill Report published late today.

The three-month average of worldwide bookings in November was $1.15 billion or approximately 2 percent less than the finalOctober level of $1.18 billion and about 19 percent less than $1.43 billion in orders posted in November 2006. 

The three-month average of worldwide billings in November was $1.39 billion, which is approximately 6 percent less than the final October level of $1.48 billion and about 6 percent less than the November 2006 billings level of $1.49 billion.

Stanley T. Myers, president and CEO of SEMI said in a statement, “November orders are 19 percent below one year ago, and at levels last reported in late 2005. Semiconductor manufacturers have added a tremendous amount of 300 mm capacity over the past year. This, combined with the overall booking trends, indicates that investments will slow in the near-term, which is consistent with concerns about the economy as a whole.”

SEMI’s book-to-bill is a ratio of three-month moving averages of worldwide bookings and billings for North American-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers.

Worldwide bookings and billings for North American-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers (in millions of dollars)

	Billings  (three-month average)	Bookings (three-month average)	Book-to-Bill
June 2007	1,768.1	1,607.6	0.91
July 2007	1,685.8	1,406.3	0.83
August 2007	1,682.3	1,371.2	0.82
September 2007	1,557.4	1,235.0	0.79
October 2007 (final)	1,477.5	1,176.9	0.80
November 2007 (preliminary)	1,393.9	1,149.5	0.82

Source: SEMI, December 2007

Independently from SEMI, the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ) releases its July Book-to-Bill Report on approximately the same date, which tracks billings and bookings worldwide of Japanese-headquartered semiconductor equipment manufacturers.

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