SAN JOSE — Despite a steep year-over-year drop in orders, North America-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers reported their highest book-to-bill ratio in more than two years as bookings rose faster than shipments in March.
The sector received $1.14 billion in orders worldwide in March on a 90-day moving basis up 5.9% sequentially but down 21.3% from March 2012, the SEMI trade group said.
The three-month average worldwide billings in March was $1 billion, up 2.8% from the revised February figure and down 22.2% from a year ago.
The book-to-bill was 1.14, meaning that $114 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.
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.
|
Billings |
Bookings |
Book-to-Bill |
October 2012 |
985.5 |
742.8 |
0.75 |
November 2012 |
910.1 |
718.6 |
0.79 |
December 2012 |
1,006.1 |
927.4 |
0.92 |
January 2013 |
968.0 |
1,076.0 |
1.11 |
February 2013 (final) |
974.7 |
1,073.5 |
1.10 |
March 2013 (prelim) |
1,001.6 |
1,137.1 |
1.14 |
Source: SEMI, April 2013