World Highlights

02/01/1997

Worldwide highlights

SEMI book-to-bill on the rise. The North America semiconductor equipment industry posted a book-to-bill ratio of 0.87 for November, up from October`s revised ratio of 0.77, according to SEMI (see Table 1). Orders received from worldwide customers by North American manufacturers in November were $936.5 million, up about 14% from October. Meanwhile, capital equipment shipments to worldwide customers were $1080.4 million. SEMI analyst Elizabeth Shumann says that the improvement in orders could indicate that the semiconductor equipment industry has hit the bottom of the current down cycle.

Seven 300-mm lines planned for `98-`99. Revised figures from SEMI`s 300-mm Wafer Initiative indicate that "There is a better than 70% chance that in the 1998-99 time frame, we will see seven 300-mm pilot lines (500-1000 wafer starts/month)," said Initiative director George Lee. "A total of eight medium- (10,000 wafers/month) and high-volume (20,000 wafers/month) facilities are presently scheduled for startup in 2000." Lee said that equipment companies are footing almost the entire cost of tool development, after finding IC makers unwilling to contribute. He added that beta 300-mm tools are being readied for placement by late 1997 or early 1998.

The Business Communications Company Inc. (BCC) report "C-152R Ultrapure Materials for the Semiconductor Industry" says that the materials industry slowdown of the mid-1980s to early 1990s is over, and that many suppliers of ultrapure chemicals, water, and gases for the industry have doubled their sales in less than seven years. In the most recent business cycle, chip complexity, smaller feature sizes, number of devices produced, and a boom in new chipmaking facilities have caused demand for ultrapure materials to surge over the last couple of years. BCC estimates that the US market value for these materials was $1.6 billion in 1995 and will increase to over $2.7 billion in 2000 (see figure), which represents an average annual growth rate of 11.7%.