Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[AKvetch]

OT. Book-To-Bill. Reuters

N. American April chip equipment orders up 16 pct
Thursday May 20, 6:06 pm ET

NEW YORK, May 20 (Reuters) - North American semiconductor capital equipment makers saw orders rise 16 percent in April from March, as stronger sales of electronics boosted the spending plans of chip makers, the industry's trade group said on Thursday.

Orders for equipment reached $1.59 billion from $1.38 billion in March, and were up 111 percent from April 2003 orders, according to Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International. Shipments rose 10 percent to $1.40 billion from March's $1.27 billion level.

The ratio of orders to shipments, known as the book-to-bill ratio, was 1.14 in April, signifying that for every $100 of products shipped, $114 in new orders were received. The book-to-bill ratio for March was revised to 1.09 from 1.10.

Following are details on North American chip equipment bookings, billings, and the book-to-bill ratio. Figures for bookings and billings are three-month moving averages, and are shown in millions of U.S. Dollars.

Billings Bookings Book-to-Bill

(3-month avg.) (3-month avg.) November 2003 876.4 923.3 1.05 December 2003 962.9 1,181.1 1.23 January 2004 1,033.7 1,226.1 1.19 February 2004 1,144.0 1,316.4 1.15 March 2004 (final)

1,268.1 1,378.8 1.09 April 2004 1,401.2 1,594.1 1.14 (prelim.)

http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/040520/tech_chipequipment_orders_1.html