Worldwide highlights

01/01/1999

Worldwide highlights

Equipment sales and chip sales rise in October. The North American semiconductor equipment industry book-to-bill rose to 0.73 for October, from North American semiconductor equipment book-to-bill September`s record low showing of 0.57 (see table), according to SEMI. Three-month average shipments in October were $844 million, 46% below the October 1997 level. Despite the October 1998 increase over September, SEMI president Stanley Myers said, "A full industry recovery may be several months away."

The worldwide markets for semiconductor sales increased by 6.2% to $10.8 billion in October, the best performance since January. Although chip sales have logged three straight month-tomonth increases, sales for October remained 9.4% below year-ago levels of just under $12 billion.