North American semiconductor equipment suppliers sold more in December on average than they did in November, according to the latest book-to-bill report from fab tool vendor trade group SEMI.
Orders in December amounted to $1.37 billion (on a three-month average basis), up 12.3 percent from the final November Book-to-Bill level of $1.22 billion, but lower than the December 2013 order level of $1.38 billion. Equipment vendors had a book-to-bill ratio of 0.98, SEMI said.
A book-to-bill ratio of 0.98 means that $98 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product that these companies billed for the month.
The three-month average for worldwide billings in December of 2014 was $1.39 billion, 17 percent higher than the final November 2014 level of $1.19 billion and 3.1 percent higher than the December billing level in 2013 of $1.35 billion, SEMI said.
Orders in December were up 12.7 percent compared to November as were billings for equipment vendors, according to SEMI.
Denny McGuirk, president and CEO of SEMI, said in a statement that looking ahead to 2015, equipment spending is forecast to “remain on track for annual growth” given the current state of the overall semiconductor industry.
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