Book-to-bill ratio

It is widely used in the technology sector and especially in the semiconductor industry, where the semiconductor manufacturing equipment (SME) book-to-bill ratio is considered an important leading indicator of demand trends.

[1] Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) publishes a monthly book-to-bill report for SME manufacturers headquartered in North America.

The report is based on confidential bookings and billings data for 22 different equipment categories, broken down into seven regions: "North America", "Japan", "Europe", "Taiwan", "Korea", "China", and "Rest of World".

[3] As of 2005, Japanese and North American SME manufacturers each accounted for more than 40% of the world market.

[4] IPC, the trade association of the electronics interconnect and packaging industry, distributes monthly market reports for the electronics manufacturing services (EMS) and printed circuit board (PCB) segments.