North American chip-gear orders up 5 percent in August

(Reuters) - North American manufacturers of equipment used to make semiconductors reported $599 million in orders in August, up 5 percent from the previous month, reflecting a gradual recovery in demand for products such as mobiles and personal computers.

The book-to-bill ratio was 1.03 in August, meaning that $103 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.

August billings were $579.9 million, up nearly 8 percent from July, and about 45 percent lower than a year ago.

"Equipment bookings have increased for five months in a row as market conditions recover from the very low levels reported earlier this year," SEMI Chief Executive Stanley Myers said in a statement.

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.) March 2009 438.3 245.6 0.56 April 2009 385.7 249.0 0.65 May 2009 392.6 287.8 0.73 June 2009 440.5 351.7 0.80 July 2009 (final) 538.0 571.8 1.06 August (prelim) 579.9 599.0 1.03

(Reporting by Manasi Phadke in Bangalore; Editing by Deepak Kannan)