Equipment Orders at the Highest Level Since August 2006

Data released by SEMI this week gave the equipment industry reason to continue with the optimism shown at this month's Semicon West event.

The industry group reported that North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.68 billion in orders in June and a book-to-bill ratio of 1.19. A book-to-bill of 1.19 means that $119 worth of orders was received for every $100 of product billed for the month, SEMI explained.

The three-month average of worldwide bookings in June was $1.68 billion, up 10.5 percent from the final May 2010 level of $1.53 billion and is up a whopping 379 percent from the $351.7 million in orders posted in June 2009.

According to SEMI's data, the three-month average of worldwide billings in June was $1.42 billion. The billings figure is up 5.7 percent from the final May 2010 level of $1.34 billion and is up 222.7 percent from the June 2009 billings level of $440.5 million.

"The capital spending plans that fabs have put in place have resulted in orders at the highest level since August of 2006," said Stanley T. Myers, President and CEO of SEMI, in a statement. "These past 12 consecutive months of book-to-bill ratios over 1.0 indicate the consistent customer demand that SEMI members are working hard to fulfill."

The SEMI data follows a mid-July report from VLSI Research estimating that semiconductor equipment sales will show near 96 percent growth in 2010. VLSI also reported that the semiconductor equipment market grew 43 percent sequentially and 188 percent year-over-year in Q1 to $10.4 billion.

In related news, Texas Instruments this month purchased two fabs as it continues with its capacity expansion and TSMC began construction of a new $9 billion 300-mm fab.

SEMI