August 18, 2006 – Orders for semiconductor manufacturing equipment from North American-based suppliers slipped about 2% in July, the first sequential drop since last November, but the bigger picture of equipment demand is still rosy, according to the latest data from SEMI.

NA-based equipment manufacturers posted bookings of $1.75 billion in July, a 1.9% decrease from June, but still a robust 73.6% higher than June 2005. Billings were $1.65 billion, up 5.8% sequentially and up 52.8% from a year ago.

Because of the slight dip in orders, the book-to-bill ratio (B:B), which compares three-month moving averages of worldwide bookings and billings, also lowered slightly to 1.06, meaning that $106 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month. The B:B has now been above the parity mark (1.0) for six straight months.

Equipment demand remains hot, with sales still pushing levels last seen in early 2001, noted Stanley Myers, president and CEO of SEMI, adding that even with a slight bookings slowdown, the worldwide equipment market is still on track to grow about 20% for all of 2006.

North American equipment bookings, billings — July 2006

Month……….Billings……….%M-M…..%Y-Y……….Bookings……….%M-M…..% Y-Y…..B:B
……………. (3-mo. avg.)………………………………… (3-mo. avg.)……………………………………..

Jul’05……….1078.2………-6.4%…..-29.4%……….1007.3………..-3.0%……-36.5%…..0.93
Aug’05……..1055.5………-2.1%…..-29.5%……….1022.3…………1.5%……-32.3%…..0.97
Sep’05……..1088.2……….3.1%…..-24.5%…………984.1………..-3.7%……-27.1%…..0.90
Oct’05………1145.9……….5.3%…..-19.9%……….1093.9……….11.2%……-20.3%…..0.95
Nov’05……..1179.7……….2.9%…..-11.9%……….1093.2………..-0.1%……-17.7%…..0.93
Dec’05……..1223.6……….3.7%……-7.1%………..1142.7………….4.5%…….-7.5%…..0.93
Jan’06……..1259.4……….2.9%…….0.1%………..1225.9…………..7.3%…….24.3%…..0.97
Feb’06……..1283.3……….1.9%……-3.6%………..1293.2…………5.5%……..26.3%…..1.01
Mar’06……..1338.7……….4.3%…….5.2%………..1385.3…………7.1%……..40.2%…..1.03
Apr’06………1448.5……….8.2%…..16.9%………..1602.4……….15.7%……..60.4%…..1.11
May’06……..1452.6……….0.3%…..19.8%………..1619.0……….1.0%………59.5%…..1.11
June’06(f)…1557.4……….7.2%…..35.2%……….1782.3……….10.1%…….71.7%…..1.14
July’06(p)….1647.7……….5.8%…..52.8%……….1749.0……….-1.9%……..73.6%…..1.06

WaferNEWS source: SEMI