Semiconductor equipment orders for the month of March reached $1.14 billion for North American equipment manufacturers, according to the SEMI trade association. This represents an increase of 23 percent from the prior quarter, however, it’s down from $1.45 billion of orders booked a year ago.
The book-to-bill ratio for the period ended in March 2013 reached 1.14, meaning $114 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.
“Continued improvement in three-month average bookings for new semiconductor manufacturing equipment is reflected in the March figures, which indicate a 23 percent improvement over the prior quarter," said Denny McGuirk, president and CEO of SEMI. “While the overall expansion of new manufacturing capacity remains muted, we see continued investment in technology upgrades by the world’s chip makers.”
Business activity has been improving steadily for equipment makers since January, when the book-to-bill ratio was 1:11. Worldwide, the March bookings figure is 5.9 percent higher than the February 2013 level of $1.07 billion, but 21.3 percent lower than the March 2012 order level of $1.45 billion.
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.
