SAN JOSE – North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $599 million in orders in August and the book-to-bill remained above the key 1.0 level indicating future growth.

On a three-month average basis, bookings were up 5% over the final July figure of $571.8 million, and down 31% year-over-year.

The book-to-bill ratio was 1.03, down 0.03 points from the revised July numbers. A book-to-bill of 1.03 means that $103 worth of orders was received for every $100 of product billed for the month.

The three-month average worldwide billings was $579.9 million, up 8% over July and down 45% from  last year.

“Equipment bookings have increased for five months in a row as market conditions recover from the very low levels reported earlier this year," said Stanley T. Myers, president and CEO of SEMI. “With semiconductor device sales and fab capacity utilization improving over recent months, we expect equipment spending to follow a similar trend during the recovery.”

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.