The upward trend has continued through to April with the book-to-bill ratio reaching 0.98, up from 0.85 at the beginning of the year. North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted US$1.60 billion in new orders for April, which is 1.1% more than the final March 2011 level of $1.58 billion, and is 10.8% above the US$1.44 billion in orders posted in April 2010.
“The continued pace of orders for new semiconductor manufacturing equipment coupled with a slight decline in billings moves the book-to-bill ratio toward parity,” noted Daniel Tracy, senior director of Industry Research and Statistics at SEMI. “Current order and spending activity is aligned with announced 2011 CapEx plans.”
The three-month average of worldwide billings in April 2011 was US$1.63 billion. The billings figure is 1.6% less than the final March 2011 level of US$1.66 billion, and is 27.4% more than the April 2010 billings level of US$1.28 billion.