CHIP GEAR ORDERS DECLINE

TOKYO, July 23 (Reuters) -
Japanese manufacturers ofequipment used to make semiconductors reported a 38 percent decline in orders in June from the same month last year amid anindustry-wide slump, calculations based on industry data showed on Wednesday. It is the 16th straight month of year-on-year order declines.

The book-to-bill ratio was 0.99 in June, meaning that new orders worth 99 yen were received for every 100 yen of products
delivered, the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan said. The ratio, which was 0.79 in May, is watched as an indicator
of demand and capital spending in an industry now dealing with a
supply glut of memory chips. Calculating monthly order values from the preliminary report,
orders in June came to 94.0 billion yen ($876.8 million), up 5.7
percent from May. June billings were about 101.4 billion yen, up 22.5 percent
from the previous month and down 43.5 percent from a year
earlier. "Until orders improve in absolute terms, we can't say a
recovery is in sight," said SEAJ spokesman Masamichi Kobayashi.
"We had forecast a recovery in chip equipment demand by the
year-end, but that may be pushed back." Earlier this week, Toshiba Corp (6502.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) production partner
SanDisk Corp (SNDK.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) posted a sharp quarterly loss and said it
was delaying a decision to expand production capacity of NAND
flash memory chips [ID:nN21449192].