CORRECTED-March N.American chip equipment orders fall from Feb

(Corrects to say March orders fell, not rose, from February in
paragraph one. Also corrects day to Thursday from Tuesday.)

BANGALORE, April 17 (Reuters) - North American
manufacturers of equipment used to make semiconductors saw
orders fall about 4 percent in March from February and had a
book-to-bill ratio of 0.89, a U.S. trade group said on
Thursday.

The book-to-bill ratio <USSEMI=ECI>, which compares volume
of orders to products shipped, was 0.89 in March, Semiconductor
Equipment and Materials International said. That means $89 in
orders was received for every $100 of product shipped.

North America-based chip equipment makers had $1.16 billion
in orders in March, down 4 percent from $1.21 billion in orders
in February and a decrease of 18 percent from the $1.42 billion
in orders in March 2007.

"Orders reported by North American equipment manufacturers
have remained at relatively constant levels over the past six
months," Dan Tracy, SEMI senior director of Industry Research
and Statistics, said in a statement.

"This trend is a reflection of the uncertainty in the
semiconductor industry, and with current economic conditions,"
he said.

SEMI also said the three-month average of worldwide
billings in March was $1.29 billion, a fall of about 1 percent
over February's $1.31 billion and a drop of 10 percent from
last March's $1.44 billion.

The SEMI book-to-bill is a ratio of three-month moving
averages of worldwide bookings and billings for North
America-based chip equipment makers.

The unaudited data was compiled by David Powell Inc, an
independent financial services firm, from data submitted by
chip equipment makers.

Billings Bookings Book-to-Bill

(Three-month avg.) (Three-month avg.)
-------------------------------------------------------------
October 2007 1,477.5 1,176.9 0.80
-------------------------------------------------------------
November 2007 1,383.2 1,130.7 0.82
-------------------------------------------------------------
December 2007 1,361.7 1,156.3 0.85
-------------------------------------------------------------
January 2008 1,279.3 1,141.0 0.89
-------------------------------------------------------------
February 2008 1,310.8 1,205.4 0.92
-------------------------------------------------------------
March 2008 (prelim.) 1,293.7 1,157.4 0.89
(Reporting by Savio D'Souza in Bangalore; Editing by Pratish
Narayanan)