FLAGSTAFF, Ariz.--Following months of declining orders and shipments, the semiconductor equipment market turned around inDecember, with both billings and bookings bouncing up for thefirst time since the spring. But industry officials still offereda cautious outlook for the months ahead.
The industry trade group
SEMI,in its December Book-to-Bill Report, said semi-gear vendors basedin North America posted $924.1 million in orders worldwide inDecember 2012 (on a three-month average basis) and saw abook-to-bill ratio of 0.92. (A book-to-bill of 0.92 means that $92worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed forthe month). The best book-to-bill month in 2012 was March at 1.12.
The bookings figure is 28.6 percent higher than November's $718.6million, but is 16.2 percent lower than the December 2011 orderlevel of $1.10 billion.
The three-month average of worldwide billings in December 2012was $1.01 billion, SEMI said. The billings figure is 10.6 percenthigher than November's $910.1 million, and is 22.6 percent lessthan the December 2011 billings level of $1.30 billion.
Denny McGuirk, president and CEO of SEMI, sounded a note ofcaution as the industry moves deeper into 2013.
"Both bookings and billings increased in December, but remainbelow figures reported one year ago,” McGuirk said. “Whileuncertainty remains regarding the 2013 equipment outlook, thefoundry and advanced packaging segments are the key investmentdrivers at the beginning of the year.”
| Billings
(3-mo. avg) | Bookings
(3-mo. avg) | Book-to-Bill |
July 2012 | 1,442.8 | 1,234.6 | 0.86 |
August 2012 | 1,331.5 | 1,092.9 | 0.82 |
September 2012 | 1,164.4 | 912.8 | 0.78 |
October 2012 (final) | 985.5 | 742.8 | 0.75 |
November 2012 (revised) | 910.1 | 718.6 | 0.79 |
December 2012 (prelim) | 1,006.8 | 924.1 | 0.92 |
Source: SEMI, January 2013; David Power Inc.
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--Semiconductorequipment sales continue to slow
