North American chip-gear orders fall 5 pct in Feb

March 20 (Reuters) - North American manufacturers of
equipment used to make semiconductors reported orders of $263.5
million in orders in February, down 5 percent from the previous
month, industry data released on March 19 showed.

The book-to-bill ratio was 0.48 in February, meaning that
$48 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product
shipped, Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International
said in a preliminary report.

The ratio is watched as an indicator of the demand pipeline
for the industry, as well as for hints about chip capacity and
whether the $300 billion semiconductor sector could be headed
for a glut.

Orders in February declined 78 percent compared with a year
ago, SEMI said. February billings were $546.1 million, 7
percent less than in January and 58 percent less than a year
ago.

"These are the lowest bookings levels we have seen since
SEMI began compiling data for the book-to-bill program in
1991," said Dan Tracy, senior director of Industry Research and
Statistics at SEMI.

"Spending and investments remain at minimal levels as the
semiconductor industry waits for clearer signals indicating
improvement in end market demand," he added.

U.S. chip equipment makers include Applied Materials Inc
(AMAT.O), the world's biggest, testing tools firm KLA Tencor
Corp (KLAC.O), circuitry-etching tools company Lam Research
Corp (LRCX.O) and Novellus Systems Inc (NVLS.O), which
specializes in preparing the surface of a silicon wafer before
circuits are laid down.

The SEMI book-to-bill is a ratio of three-month moving
averages of worldwide bookings and billings for North
America-based chip-equipment makers.

The data contained in the report was compiled by David
Powell Inc, an independent financial services firm, without
audit, from data submitted directly by the participants.

Billings Bookings Book-to-Bill

(Three-month avg) (Three-month avg)
Sept 2008 927.3 649.9 0.70 Oct
2008 871.4 839.7 0.96 Nov 2008

806.8 783.8 0.97 Dec 2008

672.4 579.1 0.86 Jan 2009 (final)
584.2 277.2 0.47 Feb 2009 (prelim.) 546.1

263.5 0.48
*Source: SEMI March 2009
(Reporting by Bijoy Koyitty in Bangalore; Editing by Anne
Pallivathuckal)