Bad news for the semiconductor manufacturing equipment industry but good news for semiconductor prices is the book-to-bill ratio announced today by SEMI, the equipment industry’s trade body.
At 1:0.76, the ratio shows a slowing demand for manufacturing equipment with $76 of new bookings for every $100 of billings in the month of September.
This probably means that the memory industry, which accounts for over half the value of new equipment orders, is sensibly cutting back on capex in the wake of disastrous losses this year.
"The three-month average of worldwide bookings in September 2008 was $754m. The bookings figure is 13% less than the final August 2008 level of $867m, and 39% less than the $1.24bn in orders posted in September 2007," said the SEMI report.
"The three-month average of worldwide billings in September 2008 was $990m. The billings figure is seven per cent less than the final August 2008 level of $1.06bn, and about 36% less than the September 2007 billings level of $1.56bn," added SEMI.
Accordng to Stan Myers, CEO of SEMI: “The continued decline in capex spending is accompanied by a major global economic downturn that may have a significant impact on overall consumer electronics spending, clearly, concern over these larger economic issues is restraining any immediate capacity investment plans.”