SEMI announced its preliminary book-to-bill ratio of 1.28 for the North American semiconductor equipment industry in June. Bookings of $1.16bn were up 59% up on June 2001. Billings were $906mn, down 33%. May's final book-to-bill is 1.28. The figures are now compiled by David Powell Inc, an

In-Stat/MDR claims the number of broadband subscribers worldwide now exceeds
30mn and will reach 46mn by the end of the year. Internationally, digital
subscriber line (DSL) services are favoured, while cable modems do
"extremely well" in the US market. DSL accounted for 17mn customers by the
end of 2001, with a sharp rise in Asia-Pacific contributing to the
technology's global dominance. In the US, DSL subscriptions at 4.6mn were
beaten by the 7.1mn cable modem customers. Satellite broadband
fibre-to-the-home and fixed wireless combined only account for 5% of the
business worldwide.

IC Insights have produced a top ten ranking for H1 2002 for IC companies.
Top foundry TSMC makes it into the rankings for the first time at No.9, from
No.15 for the whole of 2001. The rankings are: No.1 Intel ($11.800bn sales,
No.1 in 2001), No.2 Samsung ($3.88bn, No.5), No.3 Texas Instruments
($3.282bn, No.3), No.4 STMicroelectronics ($2.885bn, No.4), No.5 Toshiba
($2.875bn, No.2), No.6 Infineon ($2.503bn, No.9), No.7 NEC ($2.435bn, No.6),
No.8 Motorola ($2.309bn, No.7), No.9 TSMC ($2.303bn, No.15) and No.10
Philips ($2.153bn, No.10).

Forward Concepts has produced projections for the programmable digital
signal processor (DSP) market. In the period 2001-2006 the compound annual
growth rate is expected to be 21.8%. Last year sales were $4.256bn. For
2002-2006 the projections are in order: $4.469bn, $5.362bn, $7.132bn,
$9.129bn and $11.411bn. The company has reduced its expectations for this
year from 15% growth to 5%. Sustained recovery is not expected until
mid-2003 with the return of the "big iron" wireline market to health. The
wireless market will account for 60% of DSP applications, up from last
year's 55%.

Future Horizons has put its 2002 IC growth up 0.2% to 3.6%.
Malcolm Penn, chairman and CEO of Future Horizons, says: "We expect a 2002
year-end market value of $144mn, with no real respite in the second half of
the year. The industry is currently in a period of profitless prosperity,
and the last two quarters will continue to be a very tough ride."
Next year's growth rate is forecast at 26.4%.

With semiconductor equipment stocks nearly 50% down on April, Goldman Sachs
has upgraded the sector, although it doesn't see "fundamentals" improving in
the near term. The GS analyst James V Covello downgraded the industry in May
(Bulletin 434, May 27, 2002). The GS grading is now "market overweight"
compared with the "market weight" rank from May. Market overweight means
that GS believes the stock is worth more than its market valuation.