SIA says the overall outlook remains stagnant.
KUALA LUMPUR: North American manufacturers of semiconductor equipment reported an increase in orders in January with the book-to-bill ratio rising to 1.08 -- a significant increase since August and expectations are that the capital expenditure for 2016 would be similar to a year ago.
According to its statement posted on its website on Tuesday, the preliminary data for January was an improvement from the final December order of 1.0 and the highest since August’s 1.06.
“A book-to-bill of 1.08 means that US$108 worth of orders were received for every US$100 of product billed for the month,” it said.
The Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturers Industry (SEMI) said these manufacturers posted US$1.32bil in global orders in January 2016 (three-month average basis).
SEMI reported that the three-month average of worldwide bookings in January 2016 was US$1.32bil.
“The bookings figure is 1.4% lower than the final December 2015 level of $1.34bil, and is 0.1% lower than the January 2015 order level of US$1.33bil,” it said.
SEMI added the three-month average of worldwide billings in January 2016 was US$1.23bil.
It pointed out the billings figure was 8.8% lower than the final December 2015 level of US$1.35bil and it was 3.7% lower than the January 2015 billings level of US$1.28bil.
SEMI president and CEO Denny McGuirk said recent semiconductor order activity was on par with the figures reported one year ago.
“While uncertainty clouds the near-term economic outlook, we currently expect 2016 capex to remain in range of 2015 spending," he added.
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