European Semiconductor Distribution Market (DMASS) Remains on Growth Path

Q3/CY13 increased by 1.8% over previous year. German market remains weak; but Italy, France and Eastern Europe switch to double-digit growth mode.

London, November 14, 2013 – The European Semiconductor Distribution Market is further stabilising. According to DMASS (Distributors’ and Manufacturers’ Association of Semiconductor Specialists), sales in Q3/CY13 grew by 1.8% over the previous year’s Q3 to 1.46 Billion Euro, a good sign for the entire fiscal year.

Georg Steinberger, chairman of DMASS, said: “The summer quarter held up nicely, bookings within the membership and in the industry seemed quite strong. Our optimism that 2013 will end positive was obviously justified. Even if it will only be in the low single-digits, we are talking about a 5.8 Billion Euro year, among the highest in DMASS history. Interestingly, the slow mode only applies to revenue – in volume (number of components sold) the market grew significantly.“

Regionally, UK and Central Europe (Germany, Benelux, Switzerland) remained the weak spots. After 9 months, the decline there is between 4 and 5%, compared to a flat DMASS Total of -0.3%. For Q3, Germany reported sales of 463 Million Euro (-2%), UK 119 Million Euro (-7.8%), Benelux and Switzerland 52 Million Euro each (-5.8% and +0.6% respectively). At the same time, Italy grew to 132 Million Euro (+13.4%), France to 110 Million Euro (+14.7%) and Eastern Europe to 160 Million Euro (+11.5%).

Georg Steinberger: “An amazing recovery in the South, considering the macro-economic problems in France and especially Italy. Eastern Europe still has potential to grow internally and as a manufacturing stronghold for Western companies. The sluggish conditions in Central Europe and specifically Germany remain a concern, as it is not clear whether they indicate structural changes, like a loss of production to other regions. Although the German economy defies the signs of crisis Europe-wide, it is certainly very anti-cyclical.“

Product-wise, most key areas grew except programmable logic and memory. Programmable logic declined by another 8.3% to 122 Million Euro, which puts the year-to-date drop at -11%. Power management and consequently total analog grew by 5% (to 138 Million Euro) and 2.5% (to 412 Million Euro) respectively. Sensors, MCUs, power and opto grew between 8.9% and 6.4%. While other logic (ASSPs, ASICs) grew disproportionally (15.6%). Memory experienced a further decline of 14.6%. Interesting to watch are optoelectronic devices and in particular LEDs, the latter increasing further by a solid 12%.

Georg Steinberger: “The message from distribution to the market seems clear: continued pressure on standard products like memory and low-cost devices and interesting growth opportunities in design-intensive product segments that require technical support and application expertise.“

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 memory, 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.