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Technology Stocks : Speedfam [SFAM] Lovers Unite ! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kirk Winkler who wrote (3234)	11/20/1998 9:51:00 AM
From: Teri Skogerboe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3736

~~~More Bull Food, well at least bullish from prior month~~~ Semiconductor Equipment October Book-to-Bill Ratio Rises to 0.7 Mountain View, California, Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) - The semiconductor equipment industry's book-to-bill ratio, which measures demand for the machinery used to manufacture computer chips, rose to 0.73 in October as orders soared 31 percent from September. The ratio, which compares orders with shipments, means that for every $100 worth of shipments, the equipment makers took in $73 in new orders. A ratio higher than 1.00 indicates a growing market. The ratio fell to a recent low of 0.56 in September. Makers of equipment used to manufacture computer chips have been hurt as computer makers scale back plans for new plants amid excess supply and weak demand that has sent prices plummeting. The chip market is forecast to shrink 11 percent this year and rebound next year, when it is expected to rise 9 percent, according to analysts. ''Activity in the next few months will tell if this is in fact the first step on the road to recovery for the equipment industry,'' said Stanley Myers, president of Semiconductor Equipment Materials International, an industry trade group, in a statement. ''A full industry recovery may be several months away.'' Equipment makers took in $618.5 million in orders in October, up from $472 million in September, but down 61 percent from October 1997. Shipments rose only slightly, to $844.4 million from $840.5 million in September. Shipments were 46 percent below the October 1997 level. Earlier this week, Applied Materials Inc., the world's largest maker of chipmaking equipment, reported higher-than- expected earnings as sales topped forecasts. ----------------------------------------------------------------------