SAN JOSE — The 90-day moving average bookings at North America-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers in April jumped 22.5% over last year and 10.8% over the revised March 2014 levels. Orders reached $1.44 billion for the period, said SEMI.

The book-to-bill ratio slipped three basis points to 1.03 but remained above the key 1.0 level. A ratio of 1.03 means that $103 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month. A ratio above 1.0 is considered a sign of an expanding market.

The three-month average worldwide billings in April was $1.4 billion, up 28.7% year-over-year and 14.1% from March.

"Sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment from North American producers continue to demonstrate strong sequential and year-over-year growth,” a SEMI spokesperson said. SEMI. “The data through the first quarter reflects momentum in memory, foundry, and back-end spending.”

The SEMI book-to-bill is a ratio of three-month moving averages of worldwide bookings and billings for North American-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers. Billings and bookings figures are in millions of U.S. dollars.

Source: SEMI, May 2014