This is probably so dense I should be embarrassed in
advance to ask it, but I'm thick skinned so I'll give it a go.
Looking at the table that was posted previously, it struck
me as strange that the bookings for some months were
less than shipments in following months. I know this is a
rolling average, but it would seem that if Feb had bookings
of 1,233.5 why should the next 2 months come in 9 or 10
percent higher? Shouldn't the numbers be flat or lower
than 1,233.5 unless the extra sales are coming in unbooked?
Month Shipments Bookings Book-to-Bill
November 97 1,634.1 1,633.1 1.00
December 97 1,559.3 1,550.3 0.99
January 98 1,458.0 1,363.6 0.94
February 98 (final) 1,369.1 1,233.5 0.90
March 98 (revised) 1,342.9 1,102.1 0.82
April 98 (preliminary) 1,353.4 1,074.0 0.79
Does this question make sense? If I see April numbers
coming in at 1,074, how many months into the future will
we see shipments that match that figure?
Regards,
Mark |
