NA semicon book-to-bill ratio 0.93 in Dec. 2008

SAN JOSE, USA: North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $668.7 million in orders in December 2008 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 0.93 according to the December 2008 Book-to-Bill Report published by SEMI. A book-to-bill of 0.93 means that $93 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.

The three-month average of worldwide bookings in December 2008 was $668.7 million. The bookings figure is about 15 percent less than the final November 2008 level of $783.8 million, and about 42 percent less than the $1.16 billion in orders posted in December 2007.

The three-month average of worldwide billings in December 2008 was $722.6 million. The billings figure is about 10 percent less than the final November 2008 level of $806.8 million, and about 47 percent less than the December 2007 billings level of $1.36 billion.

“Bookings continue to reflect the uncertainty in the economic environment, and are approaching levels last seen in early 2002,” said Dan Tracy, senior director of Industry Research and Statistics at SEMI. “We expect bookings to remain at low levels until end market demand for semiconductors picks up.”

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.