January 21, 2005 – North American-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.24 billion in orders in December 2004 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 0.95, according to the December 2004 Book-to-Bill Report published today by SEMI. A book-to-bill of 0.95 means that $95 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.

The three-month average of worldwide bookings in December 2004 was $1.24 billion. The bookings figure is 7% below the revised November 2004 level of $1.33 billion and 4.6% above the $1.18 billion in orders posted in December 2003.

The three-month average of worldwide billings in December 2004 was $1.31 billion. The billings figure is 2.6% below the revised November 2004 level and 36% above the December 2003 billings level of $963 million.

“Based on these preliminary figures, we now expect worldwide sales of new semiconductor equipment by North American suppliers to total $16.5 billion in 2004, an increase of more than 60% over the prior year,” said Stanley T. Myers, president and CEO of SEMI. “The cyclic bookings peak occurred in June 2004 and total bookings in December are 23% below that level