SEMI Announces North American Semiconductor Equipment Industry's Book-to-Book Ratio at 1.00 in June

According to the June book-to-bill ratio report published by SEMI (Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International), the net capitalization (3-month average) of North American semiconductor equipment companies in June 2016 was $1.71 billion, and the book-to-bill ratio was 1.00.

The BB ratio is the order amount divided by the shipment amount. A BB ratio of 1.00 means that for every $100 of shipment amount, the order amount is $100.

June orders of $1.71 billion represented a 2.1% decrease compared to May's $1.75 billion, but a 12.9% increase compared to June's $1.52 billion. Semiconductor equipment shipments in June reached $1.71 billion, a 7% increase compared to May's $1.6 billion and a 10.2% increase compared to June's $1.55 billion.

Source: SEMI (www.semi.org), July 2016

Orders for pre-process equipment in June amounted to $1.5 billion, a slight decrease from the previous month's $1.54 billion but a 13.1% increase compared to the same period last year (June 2015). Pre-process equipment shipments in June amounted to $1.47 billion, resulting in a book-to-market ratio of 1.02 (compared to the May pre-process equipment book-to-market ratio of 1.11). In May, front-end equipment shipments amounted to $1.38 billion, compared to $1.34 billion in June 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 reached $220 million in June, a slight increase from the $210 million reported in May. Shipments in June reached $250 million, resulting in a book-to-bill ratio of 0.90 (compared to 0.96 in April). For reference, May shipments of post-processing equipment were $220 million, while shipments and orders for June of the previous year were $220 million and $200 million, respectively (the post-processing equipment category includes assembly and packaging equipment, as well as test equipment).

“Orders are a little slower than recently reported, but shipments from North America are at their highest level since February 2011,” said Denny McGuirk, president of SEMI.