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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (30153)	7/23/1998 11:53:00 AM
From: Cynic 2005	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 132070

Mike, some excellent set of number to get excited about. -g- How do you like a 32% drop in orders? MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 22, 1998--The North American semiconductor equipment industry posted a book-to-bill ratio of 0.74 for June 1998, it was reported by Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI). A book-to-bill of 0.74 means $74 in orders were received for each $100 worth of products shipped. Three-month average shipments in June 1998 were $1.2 billion. The figure is nine percent below the May 1998 level, and is about even with the June 1997 level. Three-month average bookings decreased in June 1998 to $911 million. The bookings figure is 16 percent below the May 1998 level, and 32 percent below the June 1997 level. "Contrary to everyone's hopes, May 1998 was not the bottom of the downturn cycle, although shipments were essentially equal to those of a year ago," said Dick Greene, principal analyst with SEMI. "The continued decline in orders and shipments seems to echo much of the industry news reported last week during SEMICON West." The SEMI book-to-bill is a ratio of three-month moving average bookings to three-month moving average shipments. Shipments and bookings figures are in millions of U.S. dollars. -0- T Month Shipments Bookings Book-to-Bill January 98 1,458.0 1,363.6 0.94 February 98 1,369.1 1,233.5 0.90 March 98 1,370.3 1,123.1 0.82 April 98 (final) 1,416.3 1,102.1 0.78 May 98 (revised) 1,347.4 1,084.9 0.81 June 98 (preliminary) 1,225.8 911.4 0.74 T -0- The data contained in this release was compiled by the independent public accounting firm of Arthur Andersen LLP, without audit, from data submitted directly by the participants. SEMI and Arthur Andersen LLP can assume no responsibility for the accuracy of the underlying data. The data are contained in a monthly Express Report published by SEMI that tracks shipments and orders for equipment used to manufacture semiconductor devices, not shipments and orders of the chips themselves. Based in Mountain View, SEMI is an international trade association serving more than 2,200 companies participating in the $65 billion semiconductor and flat panel display equipment and materials markets. SEMI maintains offices in Austin, Beijing, Boston, Brussels, Hsinchu, Moscow, Seoul, Singapore, Tokyo and Washington, D.C. Visit SEMI OnLine at www.semi.org.