Although orders and shipments of semiconductors in the US rose slightly in September, they did so in lock-step, according to the monthly figures from the Semiconductor Industry Association, so the book-to-bill ratio remained unchanged from August at 0.94. Average monthly orders for the three months to September were $1,209.3m up 0.3% from the August figure, and were 2.5% higher than the figure one year ago. Average monthly shipments over the same period were up 1.1% at $1,291.3m on the August figure, up 4.8% on the September 1990 figure. Actual shipments in the month of September were $1,452.4m, up 17.1% on August it was a five-week month. The book-to-bill figure for July has been finalised and stands at 0.97, up from the preliminary figure of 0.96 reported in August. The ratio was 0.96 in both September and October last year, dipping to 0.93 in November before hitting 1.00 in December and reaching a high of 1.14 in April before turning down to dip below parity in July.
