North American semiconductor fab equipment sales above parity in February

March 23, 2012 — North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.33 billion in orders in February 2012, $1.32 billion in billings, and a book-to-bill ratio of 1.01, according to SEMI’s February Book-to-Bill Report.

Worldwide bookings totaled $1.33 billion, 12.2% more than the prior month, and 16.5% below the $1.60 billion in orders posted in February 2011.

Worldwide billings hit $1.32 billion, up 6.4% over January, and 28.3% less than the February 2011 billings level of $1.84 billion.

This is the first time North American semiconductor manufacturing equipment suppliers have seen a book-to-bill ratio over parity since September 2010, said Denny McGuirk, president and CEO of SEMI. What’s driving tool spending? "Investments in advanced process technologies for NAND Flash, microprocessors, and foundry," McGuirk said.

Also read: Semiconductor manufacturing equipment sales rose 9% in 2011

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. A book-to-bill of 1.01 means that $101 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.

Billings and bookings figures are in millions of U.S. dollars. Source: SEMI March 2012.
  Billings (3-mo. avg) Bookings (3-mo. avg) Book-to-Bill
Sept 2011 1,313.5 926.5 0.71
Oct 2011 1,258.3 926.8 0.74
Nov 2011 1,176.7 977.2 0.83
Dec 2011 1,300.0 1,102.9 0.85
Jan 2012 (final) 1,239.9 1,187.5 0.96
Feb 2012 (prelim) 1,319.3 1,332.7 1.01

The data contained in this release were compiled by David Powell, Inc., an independent financial services firm, without audit, from data submitted directly by the participants. SEMI and David Powell, Inc. assume no responsibility for the accuracy of the underlying data.

The data are contained in a monthly Book-to-Bill Report published by SEMI. The report tracks billings and bookings worldwide of North American-headquartered manufacturers of equipment used to manufacture semiconductor devices, not billings and bookings of the chips themselves. The Book-to-Bill report is one of three reports included with the Equipment Market Data Subscription (EMDS).

SEMI is a global industry association serving the nano- and micro-electronic manufacturing supply chains. For more information, visit www.semi.org.

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