Jan. 2, 2008 – Global demand for semiconductor equipment made by North American-based manufacturers didn’t improve much in November, according to recent data from SEMI.

Bookings slipped again to $1149.5M, about 2% below October and more than -19% off from Nov. 2006. Billings of $1393.9M accelerated their decline from October, down about 6% both M-M and Y-Y.

In a statement, SEMI president Stanley Myers noted that the slowdown in bookings is tied to “a tremendous amount of 300mm capacity” that has come online in the past year, so chipmakers are slowing their investments in near-future capacity additions — a trend that he noted is “consistent with concerns about the economy as a whole.”

Updating high (or low) points that we’ve been tracking for several months, showing some of the less pretty equipment sector numbers:

– In terms of dollars, November bookings were the lowest since late 2005, down -30% since a peak in May ($1641.9B).
– A similar six-month streak of Y-Y double-digit % declines hasn’t been seen since late 2005 (July-Nov).
– Billings (in US$) have fallen -22% since a peak in June ($1786.1).
– Five straight months of Y-Y % declines in both tool orders and sales.
– The B:B is now at five straight months of <0.84 (not since Feb-April 2005), and 10 months below parity and counting — the previous ministreak was four months in Aug-Nov 2006, and before that, 17 months spanning late 2004-early 2006.

North American equipment bookings, billings — November 2006-November 2007

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

Oct’06…………..1562.9……-6.6%……..36.4%……….1468.6……-10.4%…….34.3%……..0.94
Nov’06…………..1486.1……-4.9%……..26.0%……….1426.5…….-2.8%…….30.5%……..0.96
Dec’06…………..1482.3……-0.2%……..21.1%……….1497.2……..5.0%…….31.0%……..1.01
Jan’07…………..1448.0……-2.3%……..15.0%……….1445.8…….-3.4%…….17.9%……..1.00
Feb’07………….1423.0……-1.3%……..11.3%……….1398.1…….-3.1%……..8.3%……..0.98
Mar’07………….1436.4……..0.9%……….7.3%………..1419.6………1.5%…….2.5%……..0.99
Apr’07………….1594.7……..11.0%……..10.1%………1567.5………10.4%…..-2.1%……..0.98
May’07………….1670.2……..4.7%………15.0%………1641.9………4.7%…….1.4%……..0.98
June’07…………1768.1……..5.9%……….13.5%……..1607.6……..-2.1%……-9.8%……..0.91
July’07………….1685.8…….-4.7%……..2.9%………..1406.3…….-12.5%…..-18.9%……..0.83
Aug’07…………1682.3……-0.2%……..-3.5%……….1371.2…….-2.5%……-20.7%……..0.82
Sept’07………..1557.4…….-7.4%……..-6.9%……….1235.0……-9.9%……-24.7%……..0.79
Oct’07 (f)………1477.5……-5.1%……..-5.5%……….1176.9…….-4.7%……-19.9%……..0.80
Nov’07 (p)…….1393.9……-5.7%……..-6.2%……….1149.5…….-2.3%……-19.4%……..0.82