European semiconductor sales have continued their healthy growth projectory in Q3 2014.
According to DMASS (Distributors’ and Manufacturers’ Association of Semiconductor Specialists) semiconductor distribution sales in Q3/CY14 grew by 7.3% to 1.57bn Euro. The regional performance remained mixed between double-digit decline and double-digit growth.
Georg Steinberger, chairman of DMASS, commented: “We were happy to see Q3 turning out better than expected. The 7.3% has set us on a growth course for 2014 of 6 to 7% for DMASS Total, which is remarkable after the two-year spluttering of 2012 and 2013. The results were positive across the regional board, with some selected negative exceptions. In the first 9 months, DMASS members reported semiconductor distribution sales of almost 4.8bn Euro. 2014 will end up a little short of the record year 2011.”
Regionally, only Nordic, Benelux and Switzerland came in negatively in Q3/CY14, with France and Italy reporting positive although under-proportional growth. On the positive side, Turkey, Russia, UK, Iberia, Austria, Israel and Germany showed above-average sales increase. The major regions reported the following quarterly sales numbers: Germany 510m Euro, Eastern Europe 177m Euro, Nordic 146m Euro, Italy 136m Euro, UK 135m Euro and France 121m Euro. Over 9 months the regional split of DMASS shows a share of 32% for Germany, 9.8% for Italy, 8.5% for the UK, 7.7% for France, 9% for Nordic and 11.2% for Eastern Europe.
Georg Steinberger noted: “There were no big surprises over the last 9 months, except the Nordic region losing electronics production to Eastern Europe or Asia. The impact of sanctions on the Russian business did not yet materialise in Q3. In general, considering the macro-economic environment for Europe at the moment, the outlook for 2015 is only moderate. However, Europeans tend to see glass half-full far too often for my taste. Let us be hopeful that 2015 will have some positive surprises for our industry.”
Product-wise, the growth leaders in Q3 were again Optoelectronics up 15.7% to 165m Euro, driven by LEDs and Fibre-Optics, Discretes rose 15.1% to 91m Euro and Analogue contributed a healthy 10.1% increase to 459m Euro.
On MOS Micro DMASS reported sales of 322m Euro grew 5.5%. Memories edged ahead by 2.8% to 119m Euro, Programmable Logic remained flat at 124m Euro and Other Logic (ASSPs, ASICs etc.) declined by 10.5% to 71m Euro.
“Over a period of nine quarters the sweet spots of growth were clearly LEDs, Flash-Memories, High-End MCUs and Advanced Analogue. This shows that the growth is actually more driven by a verticalisation of the market rather than the broadline distribution model of the past. Technical expertise on the system side is more than ever important for distributors to participate in growth trends,” concluded Georg Steinberger.
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