European Semiconductor Distribution Market (DMASS)

Continues Record Sales in Third Quarter 2017

Semiconductor distribution shows further upswing. Germany, South and East Europe drive growth. Opto, Discrete, Power, Memories and High-end Logic grow over-proportionally.

London, November 8, 2017 – The European semiconductor industry just reported the third quarter in a row of more than 2 Billion Euro. According to DMASS Ltd., semiconductor sales in Q3 2017 as reported by the members ended with 2.16 Billion Euro, an increase of 19% over the corresponding quarter last year. The first nine months ended for DMASS members with a plus of 15.6% to 6.48 Billion Euro.

Georg Steinberger, chairman of DMASS: “The success story, at least on the sales side, continues. It seems that at least in 2017 the dynamics of growth across the board are unbroken. We are certainly in for a record year already. Newer designs in fields like IoT or e-mobility will see higher components content, so the future looks rather positive from a sales and volume perspective.”

Regionally, Turkey, Austria, Eastern Europe and surprisingly Germany contributed most to the growth in Q3. Germany grew by 19.7% to 681 Million Euro, Italy by 18.6% to 185 Million Euro, the UK/Eire “only” by 12.8% to 151 Million Euro and France by 12.2% to 142 Million Euro. Eastern Europe grew by 25% to 324 Million Euro and Nordic by 18% to 183 Million Euro.

Georg Steinberger: “We do not see big changes in the regional trends compared to previous quarters, except for the fact that Germany seems to bounce back nicely, after a slower start into the year than other areas in Europe”.

On the product side, growth continues to happen in all product segments. Other Logic (application-specific), Power-Discretes, Memories, Discrete Components, and Optoelectronics grew above average, Analog and MOS Micro average and Programmable Logic, Standard Logic and Sensors below average. In detail, Analog components grew by 18.5% to 654 Million Euro, MOS Micro by 15.8% to 443 Million Euro, Opto by 19.9% to 227 Million Euro, Power by 24.6% to 213 Million Euro. Memories (mainly driven by DRAMs) grew by 22.9% to 172 Million Euro. Programmable Logic, finally, grew by 13% to 138 Million Euro.

Georg Steinberger: “This quarter again saw strong sales in memory and logic products in general, application specific logic and DRAM particularly, but also a nice upswing in Power and Discretes. Programmable Logic remains a bit disappointing, but there is barely a product area that has not grown double-digit.”

“I wish this was all based on merely distribution-driven efforts, but there are price and lead-time effects as well, so not everything is organic”, said Steinberger: “Despite the excellent top-line development, with very promising opportunities for the future, the challenges on the distribution channel continue.”

DMASS Ltd. reports to members only new statistics on Passive Components, Electromechanical Components and Power Supplies.

About DMASS

DMASS, 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 consists of 38 active members in 2017 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.