European semiconductor sales through distribution grew 8.4% in the first quarter of 2016 compared to the previous year, according to DMASS (Distributors’ and Manufacturers’ Association of Semiconductor Specialists). The quarter ended with record sales of 1.93bn Euro.
Georg Steinberger, chairman of DMASS commented: “We have, for the time being, entered a very stable market environment, with little friction from currency effects and very little effects so far from weak markets in Asia, especially China. Q1/CY16 ended surprisingly well, with 8.4% growth. After last year’s double-digit growth, we would regard this as normalisation. Considering the positive booking situation, we would expect strong first half year 2016.”
Italy and Germany, the two biggest sales regions within DMASS, contributed over-proportionally to the quarterly growth. Germany ended Q1 with a plus of 11.7% at 606m Euro, and Italy with a plus of 19.9% at 198m Euro. Eastern Europe continued on its long-term growth path and grew by 15.3% to 265m Euro (without Russia). The UK market suffered from its own currency problems and reported -0.4% decline to 147m Euro. France grew by 4.6% to 144m Euro and the Nordic countries experienced a comparably steep decline of 7.7% to 163m Euro.
Added Steinberger, “The biggest surprise is the resilience of the Italian distribution market. And the fact that Germany “recovered” after several quarters of sub-par performance is also a good sign. It will be interesting to see if these trends continue further into the year.”
On the product-side, DMASS reported double-digit growth in Sensors, Opto, Memories, MOS Micro Logic and Standard Logic. Analogue products, by far the biggest segment, ended almost spot on, with 8.7% growth to 579m Euro. MOS Micro grew by 10.2% to 394m Euro, Opto by 15.5% to 202m Euro, Memories by 12.7% to 156m Euro and Sensors, a key product for automotive and IOT, by 16% to 42m Euro.
A negative surprise was Programmable Logic, which stayed flat at 140m Euro. Discretes and Power Discretes saw under-proportional growth of 1.4% to 101m Euro and 3.1% to 184m Euro respectively.
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