SAN JOSE — The 90-day moving average sales at North America-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers rose nearly 20% year-over-year to $1.63 billion in October.
Billings were up 9% over the revised September figure and 19.8% higher than the October 2015 level, according to SEMI.
Bookings fell 5.1% sequentially to $1.49 billion, while rising 12.2% over October, the trade group added.
The book-to-bill ratio plunged to 0.91, A book-to-bill of 0.91 means that $91 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.
It was the first time the ratio dropped below the benchmark 1.0 level since December 2015. A ratio below 1.0 suggests a contracting market.
Billings |
Bookings |
Book-to-Bill |
|
May 2016 |
$1,601.5 |
$1,750.5 |
1.09 |
June 2016 |
$1,715.2 |
$1,714.3 |
1.00 |
July 2016 |
$1,707.9 |
$1,795.4 |
1.05 |
August 2016 |
$1,709.0 |
$1,753.4 |
1.03 |
September 2016 (final) |
$1,493.3 |
$1,567.2 |
1.05 |
October 2016 (prelim) |
$1,627.5 |
$1,487.2 |
0.91 |
Source: SEMI, November 2016. Billings and bookings figures are in millions of US dollars.