New orders for semiconductor equipped increased just 0.7 percent in June to $1.33 billion compared to May, but the chip equipment book-to-bill ratio increased to 1.10 from 1.08, according to trade association SEMI.
A book-to-bill ratio of 1.10 means that equipment manufacturers received $110 in new orders for every $100 of orders that they shipped in June. The SEMI book-to-bill ratio is for semiconductor equipment manufacturers headquartered in North America.
The good news for equipment makers is the book-to-bill ratio has been above parity for six consecutive months and bookings in the quarter ending in June were 20 percent higher than the first quarter of the year, according to Denny McGuirk, president and CEO of SEMI.
"As recently announced, we anticipate that total worldwide equipment spending will decline by low single-digits this year and rebound with a double-digit growth rate in 2014,” McGuirk said.
The three-month average of worldwide bookings increased slightly from $1.32 billion in May and was 6.6 percent lower than the June 2012 order level of $1.42 billion, the trade group reported.
The three-month average of worldwide billings in June was $1.21 billion, down 1.4 percent from May when billings totaled $1.22 billion. June billings were also 21.4 percent lower than June 2012 when billings totaled 1.54 billion, according to SEMI.
