North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.99 billion in orders worldwide in December 2016 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 1.06, according to the December Equipment Market Data Subscription (EMDS) Book-to-Bill Report published today by SEMI.  A book-to-bill of 1.06 means that $106 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.

SEMI reports that the three-month average of worldwide bookings in December 2016 was $1.99 billion. The bookings figure is 28.3 percent higher than the final November 2016 level of $1.55 billion, and is 47.8 percent higher than the December 2015 order level of $1.34 billion.

The three-month average of worldwide billings in December 2016 was $1.87 billion. The billings figure is 15.7 percent higher than the final November 2016 level of $1.61 billion, and is 38.2 percent higher than the December 2015 billings level of $1.35 billion.

“2016 ended the year with bookings levels approaching $2 billion,” said Denny McGuirk, president and CEO of SEMI. “This combined with a significant increase in billings puts 2016 equipment sales of North American manufacturers well above 2015 levels and well positioned for 2017.”

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. Billings and bookings figures are in millions of U.S. dollars.

Source: SEMI (www.semi.org), January 2017

SEMI will cease publishing the monthly North America Book-to-Bill report this year. The December 2016 report and press release is the last publication.  The decision to discontinue the Book-to-Bill report is based on changes in reporting by some participants where the reporting of orders/bookings into the data collection program is no longer considered a necessary component of their industry analysis.

SEMI will continue to publish a monthly billings report and issue a press release Worldwide Semiconductor Equipment Market Statistics (WWSEMS) report that SEMI prepares in collaboration with the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ). The WWSEMS report currently reports billings and bookings data by 24 equipment segments and by seven end market regions. Beginning with the January 2017 WWSEMS, bookings information will only be available for the back-end equipment segments of the industry.

SEMI continues to track semiconductor industry fab investments in detail on a company-by-company and fab-by-fab basis in its World Fab Forecast and SEMI FabView databases. These powerful tools provide access to spending forecasts, capacity ramp, technology transitions, and other information for over 1,000 fabs worldwide.  For an overview of available SEMI market data, please visit www.semi.org/en/MarketInfo.