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Technology Stocks : Applied Materials No-Politics Thread (AMAT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (12193)	11/24/2004 8:38:23 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 25522

Backend book-to-bill hits 0.66; front-end climbs to 1.02 By Mark LaPedus Silicon Strategies 11/24/2004, 2:18 AM ET SAN JOSE, Calif. — North American-based suppliers of front-end equipment in total posted a book-to-bill that was above parity for October, but the backend remains in the tank, according to data from SG Cowen Securities Corp. on Tuesday (Nov. 23). The book-to-bill for North American-based suppliers of backend equipment hit a mere 0.66 in October, up from 0.64 in September, according to SG Cowen (New York). The book-to-bill for North American-based suppliers of front-end equipment was 1.02 in October, up from 1.00 in September, according to SG Cowen. Still, the outlook is poor for the industry. "Front-end utilization will likely trend down for the next several quarters," according to SG Cowen. "Visibility remains tough (for the backend)." Overall, amid a lull in the IC market, North American-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted a book-to-bill ratio of 0.96 for October, up from the revised 0.94 figure in September, according to the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) trade group on Monday (see Nov. 22 story). In comparison, Japanese-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted a book-to-bill ratio of 0.91 in October, up from 0.87 in September, according to new figures from the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ) on Monday (Nov. 22).