Wednesday August 23, 1:59 pm Eastern Time
Chip equipment stocks rise on July book-to-bill
PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug 22 (Reuters) - Shares of semiconductor-equipment companies rallied on Wednesday after the July book-to-bill report showed demand remained strong, even in the typically slow summer months.
Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International, the industry trade group, said late Tuesday that North American-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted record bookings and shipments in July.
SEMI said that in July the book-to-bill ratio was 1.23, meaning that orders were 23 percent higher than shipments for the month, indicating an expanding market.
``Expectations are that the semiconductor industry continues to expand despite the normal historical summer seasonality,'' wrote Bear Stearns analyst Robert Maire in a note to clients. ``Annual revenue growth for the industry could be up to 40 percent.''
Shares of KLA Tencor Corp. (NasdaqNM:KLAC - news) rose 4-5/16 to 59-15/16, Applied Materials Inc. (NasdaqNM:AMAT - news) rose 2-7/16 to 84-7/16, Lam Research Corp. (NasdaqNM:LRCX - news) rose 1-5/8 to 29-3/8 and Novellus Systems Inc. (NasdaqNM:NVLS - news) rose 2-9/16 to 59-5/8.
The three-month average of worldwide shipments in July 2000 was $2.4 billion. The figure is 5 percent above the June 2000 level, and is 73 percent above the July 1999 shipments level of $1.4 billion. July shipments came in 45 percent above the previous cycle peak of $1.6 billion shipped in November 1997.
The three-month average of bookings in July 2000 was $2.9 billion. The bookings figure is 2.5 percent above June 2000 orders and 91 percent above the $1.5 billion in orders posted in July 1999. July bookings came in 79 percent above the previous bookings cycle peak of $1.6 billion.
``A review of the historical data shows that in six of the last nine years, the industry has typically seen bookings drop in July,'' said Elizabeth Schumann, director of industry research and statistics for SEMI in a statement released Tuesday. ``The momentum of the current cycle, however, has been strong enough to keep orders edging upward.''
``The fundamentals of the semiconductor industry remain strong, with continued demand for chips driving the move to add capacity and adopt new manufacturing technologies,'' Schuman said.
The SEMI book-to-bill is a ratio of three-month moving average bookings to three-month moving average shipments for the North American semiconductor equipment industry. Shipments and bookings figures are in millions of U.S. dollars. |
