North American semi equipment sales remain weak in August

By Ann Steffora Mutschler, Senior Editor -- 9/19/2008

North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $884 million in orders in August on a three-month average basis, which is slightly lower than the final July level of $889 million, and approximately 36% less than the $1.37 billion in orders posted in August 2007, according to industry association Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI). These figures correlated to a book-to-bill ratio of 0.83, which means that $83 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.

On a billings basis, the three-month average of worldwide billings in August was $1.07 billion, which is approximately 1% less than the final July level of $1.08 billion, and almost 37 percent less than the August 2007 billings level of $1.68 billion.

Stanley T. Myers, president and CEO of SEMI commented in a statement, “As we approach the end of the third quarter, orders for semiconductor manufacturing equipment remain very weak compared to 2006 and 2007 levels. While there are indications of resumed spending in 2009, current economic conditions, industry oversupply and economic uncertainty have resulted in the lowest three month average order level since 2003.”

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. (Billings and bookings figures are in millions of U.S. dollars.)

	Billings (three-month avg.)	Bookings (three-month avg.)	Book-to-Bill
March 2008	1,344.9	1,165.6	0.87
April 2008	1,337.3	1,090.3	0.82
May 2008	1,313.0	1,029.3	0.78
June 2008	1,159.8	934.2	0.81
July 2008 (final)	1,077.2	889.0	0.83
August 2008 (prelim.)	1,065.5	884.1	0.83

Source: SEMI September 2008

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