The book-to-bill ratio for North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment rose to 1.01 last month, boosted by rising spending on advanced technologies from memory and contract chipmakers, a new indicator for an industry recovery, a statement released by global semiconductor industry association SEMI said yesterday.
That was the first time in 17 months that the book-to-bill ratio broke one. A book-to-bill ratio of 1.01 means that US$101 worth of orders were received for every US$100 of products billed for the month.
BOOKINGS
“For the first time since September 2010, the book-to-bill ratio is over parity as three-month average bookings continued to increase,” SEMI president and chief executive Denny McGuirk said in the statement.
“Investments in advanced process technologies for NAND flash, microprocessors and foundries [contract chipmakers] are key spending drivers for the year,” he said.
On Monday, Credit Suisse raised its forecast for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) capital expenditures to US$7 billion this year, up roughly 17 percent from its previous estimate of US$6 billion, to increase capacity for advanced 28 nanometer technology to cope with fast-growing customer demand.
THREE-MONTH AVERAGES
SEMI yesterday said the three-month average of global bookings expanded 12.2 percent to US$1.33 billion last month, compared with US$1.19 billion in January. That represented a drop of 16.5 percent from US$1.6 billion a year ago.
The three-month average of billings grew 6.4 percent to US$1.32 billion last month from January’s US$1.24 billion, SEMI said.
On an annual basis, the figure was down 28.3 percent from US$1.84 billion in billings.
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