February 23, 2005 – The semiconductor equipment industry continues to pull away from its peak, as evidenced by an ugly performance in January.

North American-based semiconductor equipment posted $1.01 million in worldwide bookings (a three-month average), an 18% decline from both December’s revised figures and January 2004. Bookings are now 37% below the market’s peak in June, and are at their lowest since November 2003. Billings in January were $1.27 billion, down 4% from December but still 23% higher than a year ago.

The book-to-bill ratio fell to 0.80, meaning that $80 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month — matching the lowest B:B point in 27 months.