Orders for chips in the US during June fell 7.9% on the May figure, causing the Semiconductor Industry Association’s book-to-bill ratio to take a tumble, sliding to 1.06 from the provisional 1.14 reported for May. The April ratio has been revised upwards to 1.10 from a reported 1.09. Shipments of semiconductors to the US market however increased during rising 10.1% on the May figure to $1,296.8m – but that’s still 2.3% down on March and 5% down on the figure for a year ago. Average monthly orders for the three-month period to June were $1,270.4m, 7.9% below the figure for May, but 1.3% higher than the average orders posted a year ago. Three-month average sales for June came out at $1,203.5m to produce the 1.06 book-to-bill ratio for the month.