SAN JOSE -- North American-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.09 billion in orders in November on a 90-day average basis and a book-to-bill ratio of 0.92 according to SEMI.

A book-to-bill of 0.92 means that $92 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.

Bookings were about even with revised October levels of $1.09 billion and 18% below the $1.33 billion in orders posted last year.

The three-month average of worldwide billings in November was $1.18 billion, up 3% from October and down 12% from November 2004.

"Bookings for North American-based semiconductor equipment providers continue to show stability, with signs of some improvement over the previous quarter," said Stanley T. Myers, president and CEO of SEMI. "The well-managed spending cycle throughout 2005 has been encouraging and the equipment market is positioned for growth in 2006."

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.