SEMI, the global industry association serving the manufacturing supply chain for the micro- and nano-electronics industries, this week reported that for the quarter ended December 31, 2014, worldwide photovoltaic manufacturing equipment book-to-bill ratio remained below parity, at 0.68.

Worldwide bookings, which represent net new orders for PV manufacturing equipment, improved 4 percent in Q4’14 compared to the previous quarter but were down 35 percent year-over-year. Worldwide billings declined 9 percent in Q4’14 versus Q3’14, and declined 41 percent on a year-over-year basis.

Total billings for the full year 2014 dropped to $1.06 billion, or a 13 percent decline from 2013 billings of $1.22 billion. Annual bookings in 2014 totaled just $851 million, which is 16 percent above 2013 bookings of $736 million.

On a regional basis, equipment sales were dominated by Asia. For the full year of 2014, Asia represented about 77 percent of total billings.

The worldwide PV equipment billings and bookings data is gathered jointly with the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) from about 50 global equipment companies that provide data on a quarterly basis.