SAN JOSE – The 90-day moving average orders for North America-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers rose 26.7% year-over-year in February, according to the industry's top trade group.

The semiconductor fabrication industry posted $1.58 billion in orders in February, up 4.7% from the revised January figures.

The three-month average of worldwide billings in February was $1.83 billion, up 2.3% from January and up 79.8% from last year, when the market was emerging from a recession. Billings increased for the third month in a row.

The book-to-bill ratio was 0.87, meaning that $87 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month. A ratio under 1.0 is considered an indicator of future decline.

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 March 2011