April chip equipment orders growth barely pauses
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., May 22 (Reuters) - Semiconductor equipment makers barely saw a pause during April in the torrid growth in orders for the machinery used to manufacture and test computer chips, capping a string of record-breaking months.
North American semiconductor equipment makers posted $142 in orders for every $100 of products shipped, according to preliminary data reported late on Monday by trade group Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI).
By contrast, an average of $145 in orders was received for every $100 in shipments during March, outstripping all previous records in the notoriously boom-to-bust-to-boom-again industry.
Investors use this ``book-to-bill'' data, which reflects a three-month moving average of the ratio of bookings to billings, to gauge the industry's growth prospects.
Bookings rose to $2.7 billion, up 10 percent from March's $2.45 billion, SEMI said.
The industry has been on a strong upward growth trend since late last year, reflecting a rebound from a slump that stretched back to November 1997, the previous industry highpoint before an equipment sales glut socked the industry.
Chipmakers have been increasing capital budgets to buy, build and equip production facilities.
Several Wall Street analysts had said ahead of the release of Monday's data that a let-up in order growth was expected after five months of new records.
With demand for computer chips far outstripping production capacity, especially for circuitry used in products such as cellphones, analysts believe that any pause in growth for the underlying equipment used to produce electronics will prove temporary and regain momentum during the course of this year.
Semicondutor equipment makers include companies such as Applied Materials Inc. (NasdaqNM:AMAT - news), the dominant player in the industry, Novellus Systems Inc. (NasdaqNM:NVLS - news), Lam Research Corp. (NasdaqNM:LRCX - news) and Teradyne Inc. (NYSE:TER - news). |
