Worldwide highlights
07/01/1998
Worldwide highlights
Fourth month-to-month decline for chip sales. Worldwide semiconductor sales dipped less than 1% on a month-to-month basis in March, but fell a sharp 4.9% from year-ago levels, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association`s Global Sales Report (see table). This is the fourth consecutive month-to-month decline, and the first dip below year-ago levels in the past 12 months. World chip sales were $10.429 billion in March, down slightly from $10.525 billion in February, and down from $10.967 billion in March 1997. The Americas took the biggest month-to-month hit in March, with sales of $3.42 billion, a 3.4% decline from February, and 7.2% decline from year-ago levels. The Asia-Pacific region posted the largest month-to-month gain, reporting a 0.7% rise with $2.33 billion in sales. While the continued month-to-month sales decline is disheartening, the rate of decline moderated from the 4% drop in February.
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Equipment orders slip in March. Orders for semiconductor equipment at North American companies slipped again in March to $1.1 billion, 12% below February totals, and 8% down from March 1997, according to SEMI (see figure). The equipment book-to-bill ratio for March came in at 0.8, the lowest level since the autumn of 1996. Shipments also declined month over month, to $1.3 billion, 1% below February. This was a full 27% better than March 1997, however. Dick Greene, SEMI principal analyst, noted that total orders for March were down by about the same amount as February orders were from January. He noted that a survey of semiconductor makers completed in March suggested that equipment orders will decline about 12% this year.
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Equipment orders in March slipped to $1.1 billion.
Metrology/inspection market growth. The market for metrology and inspection tools is expected to generate $1.78 billion in revenues this year, according to a new report published by market researcher The Information Network, New Tripoli, PA. The firm said the metrology and inspection market size grew to $1.101 million in 1997, up 6.3% from $1.035 million the year before. According to The Information Network, the reticle inspection market was $226 million in 1997, the CD-SEM market was $341 million, and the wafer defect market was $534 million. KLA-Tencor took the lead in both the reticle inspection and wafer defect market for 1997, leaving the lion`s share of the CD-SEM market to Hitachi.