European Semiconductor Distribution Market (DMASS)Returns to Growth

Q2/CY13 ends 2.6% higher than Q2/CY12. Further sequential growth in all regions except Germany and UK. Strong gains in Italy and Eastern Europe.
London, August 12, 2013 – The European Semiconductor Distribution Market currently seems to be getting out of a 2 year trough. According to DMASS (Distributors’ and Manufacturers’ Association of Semiconductor Specialists), sales in Q2/CY13 grew by 2.6% to 1.51 Billion Euro compared to Q2/CY12. The first half of 2013 ended with sales of 3 Billion 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.“

Regionally, in a Q2/Q2 comparison, if it were not for the UK (-4.9%) and especially Germany (-2.8%), the quarter would have turned out even more positively. DMASS reported for Germany total sales of 462 Million Euro and for the UK 122 Million Euro. France grew moderately (+4.4% to 117 Million Euro), Italy surprisingly strong (+10.3% to 155 Million Euro), Nordic went up by 11.2% to 154 Million Euro (despite a massive production shift out of the region) and Eastern Europe further strengthened its critical mass with 167 Million Euro (+11%).

Georg 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 its second 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 125 Million Euro, Discretes by 5.5% to 77 Million Euro. Other Logic (14.4% to 85 Million Euro) and Sensors (10.7% to 35 Million Euro) grew double-digit, the rest ended between 1.9% and 6.1%. The major segments Analog, MOS Micro and Opto showed above average recovery, Analog to 428 Million Euro (+3.6%), MOS Micro to 315 Million Euro (6.1%) and Opto to 142 Million Euro (6.1%).

Georg Steinberger: “Major product segments which are typical for distribution remained stable. 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.“

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 34 active members and represents between 80% and 85% 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.