Hopes that the US Semiconductor Industry Association’s book-to-bill ratio would make it back into the black for November were dashed when the figure came out at 0.99, up from October’s 0.96 – and this is almost the last time that figures will be presented in precisely the traditional form: from January’s figure, to be announced in the second week in February, the San Jose-based trade body is going to go in for a bit of seasonal adjustment. Comparisons for previous months’ figures will be restated to conform to the new calculation. The current book-to-bill reports use three-month moving averages and single-month comparisons in determining the ratio of North America market shipments and orders, but the new methodaology will weigh a given month’s ships and orders with with seasonal patterns from prior years. As for November’s figure, the Association notes that despite the small deficit in the current figure, the rise from October broke a five-month trend in which the indicator dipped month-to-month and that the ratio has been negative in seven of the last 10 years. November ships on the usual three-month moving average were flat with those for October at $3,008m while average orders for the three months to November were 2.3% up at $3,050m.
