The European Semiconductor Distribution Market looks to be emerging from a two year trough.
According to DMASS (Distributors’ and Manufacturers’ Association of Semiconductor Specialists), sales in Q2/CY13 grew by 2.6% to 1.51bn Euro compared to Q2/CY12. The first half of 2013 ended with sales of 3bn Euro, which represents a slight decrease of 1.4%.
Georg Steinberger, chairman of DMASS, commented on the results: “As expected, the improvement on the booking side since Q4/CY12 materialises now in the form of higher revenues, so that the market has slightly turned towards a positive trend. However, we should be careful to over-interpret the market conditions, as bookings are just slightly higher than billings. With China as one key economy softening, the trend could turn easily. Nevertheless, I am cautiously optimistic that 2013 will remain positive.”
Things could have been better. Both the UK, down 4.9% and Germany down 2.8% are on the naughty step. But for them, the quarter would have turned out even more positively. DMASS reported total sales for Germany of 462m Euro and for the UK 122m Euro. Leading the growth charge were the Nordic region which was up 11.2% to 154m Euro and surprisingly Italy where the distribution channel belied the country’s economic woes by growing 11% to 155m Euro. France’s gain was less spectacular, a more modest 4.4% to 117m Euro). Eastern Europe conitnues to flourish posting an 11% increase to 167m Euro.
Commented Steinberger: “Reading the newspaper, you would expect the opposite, but the fact is that Germany still shows signs of weakness in semiconductor demand and Italy firmly secures the number two position as a single market within Europe.”
At the product detail level, all major segments except Programmable Logic and Discretes were positive in Q2/CY13. Programmable Logic declined by 13.6% to 125m Euro, Discretes by 5.5% to 77m Euro. Double digit growth took sensors up 10.7% to 35m Euro and other logic grew 14.4% to 85m Euro. The major segments Analogue, MOS Micro and Opto showed above average recovery, Analogue grew 3.6% to 428m Euro (+3.6%), MOS Micro was up 6.1% to 315m Euro, while opto also gained 6.1% to 142m Euro
“Major product segments which are typical for distribution remained stable,” aded Georg Steinberger. “Exceptions like Programmable Logic and to a lesser extent RF Discretes are of lesser concern to the whole DMASS community, but more so to the major contenders in that area. Other high end key technologies on the other side (32-Bit MCUs and High-Brightness LEDs) showed over-proportional growth, which proves for me that distribution increasingly drives more complex projects.”
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