August 2009 book-to-bill ratio of 1.03: SEMI

USA: North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $599.0 million in orders in August 2009 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 1.03, according to the August 2009 Book-to-Bill Report published by SEMI.

A book-to-bill of 1.03 means that $103 worth of orders was received for every $100 of product billed for the month.

The three-month average of worldwide bookings in August 2009 was $599.0 million. The bookings figure is about 5 percent greater than the final July 2009 level of $571.8 million, and about 31 percent less than the $866.8 million in orders posted in August 2008.

The three-month average of worldwide billings in August 2009 was $579.9 million. The billings figure is almost 8 percent greater than the final July 2009 level of $538.0 million, and just over 45 percent less than the August 2008 billings level of $1.06 billion.

“Equipment bookings have increased for five months in a row as market conditions recover from the very low levels reported earlier this year," said Stanley T. Myers, president and CEO of SEMI. “With semiconductor device sales and fab capacity utilization improving over recent months, we expect equipment spending to follow a similar trend during the recovery.”Source: SEMI September 2009.

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. Billings and bookings figures are in millions of US dollars.