Semi Gear Market Still Sluggish
SAN JOSE -- The 90-day moving average orders of North American-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment was $1.07 billion in June, good for a book-to-bill ratio of 0.93.
Bookings were up 5.5% over revised May levels and 33% below June 2004, said SEMI, which tracks the data.
A book-to-bill of 0.93 means that $93 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.
While 0.93 represents an improvement over the 0.84 posted in May, it remains below the 1.0 mark considered the sign of an expanding market.
The three-month average of billings was $1.15 billion in June, down 4.9% from May and 33% from June 2004.
Stanley T. Myers, president and CEO of SEMI, said, "North American providers of new semiconductor manufacturing equipment continue to see stabilizing trends and a book-to-bill ratio that is trending toward parity. While overall billings are below last year's levels, the current data reflects incremental improvement for front-end and especially final manufacturing equipment."
