North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted a book-to-bill ratio of 1.22 last month, Silicon Valley-based Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) reported yesterday, signaling that the semiconductor industry is well on track to a recovery.
A book-to-bill of 1.22 means that US$122 worth of orders was received for every US$100 of product billed for the month.
“The book-to-bill ratio has been above parity for eight months in a row, and three-month average order figures are in the range last reported in late 2007,” Dan Tracy, senior director of SEMI’s Industry Research and Statistics, said in a statement.
“Year-over-year comparisons are dramatic in comparison to the very low figures reported in the first quarter of 2009,” Tracy said.
Last month, US-based semiconductor equipment makers posted US$1.23 billion in orders, growing nearly fourfold from the same period last year, SEMI said.
That also represented a 4.5 percent increase from US$1.18 billion in January, the statement showed.
Separately, SEMI forecast contract chipmakers would spend US$27.2 billion on new equipment this year, up 88 percent from last year rather than the 65 percent estimated previously.
This year, Taiwan is expected to be the biggest buyer of semiconductor equipment again.
SEMI did not provide last year’s figure for comparison.
Taiwan’s two biggest contract chipmakers — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) — plan to spend a combined US$6.3 billion on new equipment this year, up from US$3.22 billion last year, the chipmakers have told their investors.
The chipmakers said they were expanding capacity in line with increasing customer demand, especially for chips made on advanced technologies.
Last year, Taiwanese semiconductor companies bought a total of US$4.35 billion in equipment, down 13.2 percent from US$5.01 billion in 2008, SEMI said.
Global semiconductor companies purchased US$15.92 billion in equipment last year, down 46 percent year-on-year, SEMI said.
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