November Book-to-bills
"The current booking levels, down from highs earlier in the year, reflect the uncertainty facing the semiconductor industry as the New Year approaches, although the overall mood in the industry is that conditions will improve in 2003," says Stanley Myers, president and CEO of SEMI. "Following two years of severe contraction, the industry consensus is that the worldwide capital equipment market will grow 15 percent in 2003."
Independently, VLSI Research estimates a book-to-bill ratio of 0.92 in November for the world semiconductor equipment industry. Bookings are put at $3.02bn - $1.75bn for wafer processing, $0.68bn for test, $0.22bn for assembly and $0.37bn for services and spares. The company expects a ratio of 1 for December.
In the IC market, VLSI has a book-to-bill of 1.01 in November with bookings of $11.08bn and billings of $10.96bn. Decembers ratio is expected to be 1.04 (bookings $11.26bn, billings $10.83bn). Fab capacity utilisation is put at 82.7% in November.
