With a sales growth of almost 20%, the 2nd quarter of 2006 has been another positive surprise for the European semiconductor distribution market. Germany (regional) and Standard Analog (product-wise) took again the lead.

London, August 9, 2006 • The 1st quarter of 2006 may have been very encouraging for the European semiconductor distribution industry, but the 2nd quarter ended as a huge and positive surprise. According to DMASS (Distributors’ and Manufacturers’ Association of Semiconductor Specialists), consolidated sales in the three-month period from April to June 2006 grew by 19,6% over the same quarter of 2005. In actual numbers, DMASS reported sales of 1,4 Billion €. The first half of 2006 showed a consolidated sales growth of 18% to a level of 2,8 Billion €.

Georg Steinberger, Chairman of DMASS, commented: "2006 starts as an extremely positive year for semiconductor distribution, and we are close to the record levels of 2000 in revenues. Similarities to 2004, when the 2nd quarter reached the same level as the seasonally strongest 1st quarter, are obvious. Unfortunately in 2004, the second half of the year flattened out pretty abruptly. Also, signs from the semiconductor OEM market are not encouraging. There, the sales trend does not come close to distribution performance at the moment, which has us worried about the sustainability of the current trend. Certainly a good reason to closely watch bookings and inventories."

Of the major regions, Germany again outperformed all others, showing a year/year growth of 25,8% to 438 Million €. With 193 Million € (+15,5%) Italy again claimed 2nd spot, followed by the UK & Eire (+13,7%) with 158 Million € and France (+11,2%) with 130 Million €. Among the smaller regions and countries, Russia, Israel, Denmark, Czech Republic and Sweden grew fastest, between 37,3% and 23,3%. All other countries were growing between 21% (Norway) and 1,4% (Hungary).

Georg Steinberger: "The growth in all regions was substantial in the 1st half of the year, only Finland and Hungary seem to suffer from business transfer issues within their strong contract manufacturing market segments. Germany continues to be the driver among the big four and hopefully will remain in that role."

Product-wise, of the major product group, Analog and MOS Micro grew by 26,3% respectively 24,5%. Sales in Programmable Logic, Memories, Discretes and Opto increased slightly below average • between 18,4% and 15,3%. The two largest product groups, Standard Analog and Microcontrollers, grew by 28,8 respectively 22%. The highest growth rates could be found in Microperipherals (49,2%), Digital Signal Processors (43,4%) and SRAMs (37,6%).

Steinberger concluded: "The solid growth across the product ranges, but more specifically in the major categories Analog and MOS Micro shows that the trend in the last three quarters was really driven by the entire industry and not a specific market segment. Given that distribution serves all segments, we hope that our industry can benefit from that breadth of scope and further increase its share of the total components market."

About DMASS

DMASS (Distributors’ and Manufacturers’ Association of Semiconductor Specialists), a European non-profit organisation, is the only industry body that collates detailed semiconductor distribution market data on a quarterly basis by country and product groups such as microcontrollers, flash memories, analog components and many more. DMASS figures are collected and consolidated by Data Dynamics Ltd.

DMASS, founded in 1989, provides its members with a reliable statistical tool to evaluate their relative mass-market performance. The organisation currently consists of 30 active members and represents between 70% and 80% of the total European distribution market, depending on the regions. To continuously increase its European market coverage, DMASS welcomes new membership applications from distributors and semiconductor manufacturers.