The SEMI book-to-bill is trending upwards again. From 0.96 in October it went to 0.97 in November, 0.86 in December, 0.47 in January 0.49 in February and then started moving upwards in March to 0.61.
"The sharp decline in bookings levels has abated," says Stan Myers, CEO of SEMI, "however, the improvement in the March book to bill ratio is primarily attributed to reduced billings, and semiconductor equipment bookings remain at levels below that needed to support a healthy supply chain."
October's $871.4m in billings declined to November's $806.8m, to December's $672.4m, to January's $584.2m, to February's $525.5m and to March's $455.3m - almost halving over the six month period.
Bookings showed an even steeper decline, going from October's $839.7m, to November's $783.8m, to December's $579.1m, to January's $277.2m, and to February's $258.4m, before moving slightly upwards to March's $278.9m.
The three-month average of worldwide bookings in March 2009 was $278.9m. The bookings figure is about 8% greater than the final February 2009 level of $258.4m and about 76% less than the $1.17bn in orders posted in March 2008.
The three-month average of worldwide billings in March 2009 was $455.3m. The billings figure is about 13% less than the final February 2009 level of $525.5m, and about 66% less than the March 2008 billings level of $1.34bn.
Earlier this week ASML, the No.1 supplier of lithography equipment reported signs of an up-tick in demand. "We are seeing signs of a pick-up in technology purchases from the current low run rate", said ASML's CEO Eric Meurice, who forecasted a return to normal order levels in the second half of the year, driven by technology transitions such as the ramp of the NAND flash 35nm node, the ramps of the DRAM 55nm node, and the ramp of the logic 45nm node.
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