Trade association, SEMI has reported clear signals of a recovery in worldwide PV manufacturing equipment orders with the book-to-bill ratio rebounding strongly to 1.24 in the first quarter of 2014.

The worldwide PV equipment billings and bookings data gathered jointly by SEMI and the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) in the first quarter shows bookings increased 18% from the previous quarter to reach US$296 million, 44% higher than the same quarter a year ago and are the highest quarterly value since the first quarter of 2012.

The last time the book-to-bill ratio was above parity was the first quarter of 2011.

However, SEMI noted that worldwide billings declined 42% from the prior quarter to US$240 million, a legacy of limited capital spending in 2013.

In keeping with long-term manufacturing market trends, Asia represented over 70% of total billings and over 80% of the total bookings in the quarter.