World Highlights
03/01/1998
Worldwide highlights
Semiconductor sales up in November. World semiconductor sales hit $12.10 billion in November, a new high for 1997, but marginally surpassing October sales by $113 million, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association`s monthly Global Sales report (see table). The sales levels were up 9.1% over November 1996 levels of $11.09 billion. Only European chip sales showed a month-to-month rise, posting 6.0% over October to $2.69 billion, and 13.1% over year-ago numbers of $2.38 billion. Sales in the Americas and Asia Pacific remained essentially flat. The weakening yen again took its toll on Japan, where sales were $2.72 billion, down 1.1% from October sales of $2.74 billion and down 4.8% from 1996 levels.
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Equipment book-to-bill slipped again in December. December chipmaking tool orders at North American semiconductor equipment companies were 5% below November levels, and shipments slipped 3.5%, resulting in a book-to-bill ratio of 0.97, according to SEMI. Three-month average bookings for December were $1.75 billion, down from November`s figure of $1.844 billion. Shipments were $1.81 billion, down from November levels of $1.875 billion. The book-to-bill ratio has now been below unity for two consecutive months, after spending the first 10 months of 1997 above 1.0. While SEMI senior analyst Dick Greene said, "The modest decline actually seems reassuring within the context of reported Asian financial issues," Paine Webber analyst Gunnar Miller commented, "We believe there is a strong probability of downward revisions by SEMI to both orders and shipments." The test and assembly sector posted a book-to-bill of 1.03.
Fab capacity utilization dips in November. Capacity utilization dipped sharply to 81.4% in November from 89.4% in October, according to preliminary figures from VLSI Research, San Jose, CA. The capacity utilization level, the lowest since January 1997, was due in part to a falloff in the amount of silicon process and to the continued addition of fab lines. World fab capacity was 447.3 million in.2 of silicon/month in November, up from 342.5 million in.2 at the beginning of 1997. VLSI analyst Mark Stromberg noted that IC unit sales declined in both October and November, to 4.9 billion units from 5.6 billion in September. Measured in dollars, chip sales and orders both ticked down somewhat in November, but the book-to-bill ratio remained healthy, and in the same range as the past six months.