According to the April Book-to-Buy ratio report released by the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI), North American semiconductor equipment companies had net orders (three-month average) of $1.59 billion in April 2016, resulting in a book-to-buy ratio of 1.10. The book-to-buy ratio is calculated by dividing orders by shipments. A book-to-buy ratio of 1.10 means that orders were received for every $100 of shipments.

April orders of $1.59 billion were up 15.6% from $1.38 billion in March and up 1.3% from $1.57 billion in April of the previous year. Semiconductor equipment shipments in April amounted to $1.46 billion, a 21.5% increase from $1.2 billion in March but a 4% decrease from $1.52 billion in April last year.

<Source : SEMI, May 2016 >

Orders for pre-process equipment reached $1.39 billion in April, up from $1.2 billion the previous month and a 4.7% increase compared to the same period last year (April 2015). Pre-process equipment shipments in April reached $1.28 billion, resulting in a book-to-book ratio of 1.09 (compared to the March book-to-book ratio of 1.18). Front-end equipment shipments in March amounted to $1.02 billion, compared to $1.32 billion in April of the previous year (the front-end equipment category includes wafer processing, mask/reticle manufacturing, wafer manufacturing, and fab facilities).

Orders for post-processing equipment in April amounted to $200 million, a slight increase from the $180 million reported in March. Shipments in April reached $170 million, resulting in a book-to-book ratio of 1.16 (compared to the March book-to-book ratio of 1.00). For reference, March shipments of post-processing equipment amounted to $180 million, while shipments and orders in April of the previous year were $200 million and $240 million, respectively (the post-processing equipment category includes assembly and packaging equipment, as well as test equipment).

“Orders are at an eight-month high, and shipments also increased significantly in April,” said Denny McGuirk, president of SEMI. “This reflects investments in 3D NAND and China.”