The US Semiconductor Industry Association’s book-to-bill ratio for the North American market for December went back over unity, coming out at 1.04, up from 0.99 in both November and October. Orders on the usual three-month moving average rose 3% to $2,276m, and were 20% up on the figure for December 1992. Shipments on the same basis were down 2.1% at $2,184m, but were up 28.4% on the year-ago figure. Actual shipments in December were up 12.3% on the November figure at $2,399m, and 27.1% up on December 1992. Preliminary 1993 shipments were $24,630m, which represents a growth rate of 33.8% over 1992, the best growth rate since 1988’s 30.8%.
