News Article
December Book-to-bills
SEMIs book-to-bill ratio for the North American semiconductor equipment came in at 0.98 in December 2002. Three-month average bookings were 39% up on December 2001 at $839mn and billings were 5% up at $853mn. The final book-to-bill ratio for November 2002 is given as 0.80.
SEMIs book-to-bill ratio for the North American semiconductor equipment came in at 0.98 in December 2002. Three-month average bookings were 39% up on December 2001 at $839mn and billings were 5% up at $853mn. The final book-to-bill ratio for November 2002 is given as 0.80.
Separately, the market research company VLSI Research also offered its December 2002 book-to-bill ratios - for worldwide equipment (1.00) and IC products (1.06). The equipment figure was based on bookings of $2.503bn and billings of $2.496bn. For ICs, bookings were $11.25bn and billings were $10.63bn. The ratio expectations for January are 1.09 for equipment and 1.15 for ICs.
VLSI also gives a front-end capacity utilisation rate of 80.2% in December, compared with 82.2% in November 2002. The company believes that excess capacity is driven by 300mm, increased tool productivity and equipment discounting.
