The US Semiconductor Industry Association’s book-to-bill ratio for January rose to 1.07 from 1.04 for December. Orders on a three-month moving average were up 6% on the December figure at $2,456m and shipments on the same basis were up 3.9% at $2,305m compared with December. Actual January sales were $2,277m, down 9.0% on December. Commenting on the figures, Dr Moshe Handelsman of Advanced Forecasting, Cupertino, says that orders have returned to normalcy, the 1992-93 boom is over, and the best example for that is MOS memory chips – he says the book-to-bill ratio of memory chips worldwide has been declining since July 1993, and declined to 1.0 in December. Right now the IC industry is at the peak, he says, adding that organisation continues to see early signs that the slowdown following the current turning-point will be milder and shorter than those of 1985 and 1989.
