Georg Steinberger, chairman of DMASS.

Det europæiske halvledermarked i solid vækst

Ifølge DMASS-organisationen voksede det europæiske halvledermarked med over 10 procent i fjerde kvartal af 2014 i forhold til samme periode i 2013, og 2014-omsætningen er næsten på niveau med rekordåret 2011 (in english).

- It is always good to see predictions being beaten by the reality. DMASS members did well in an increasingly steady business year and leveraged their regional strength. The 2014 results show healthy growth across the board, with very few problem zones, says Georg Steinberger, chairman of DMASS. 

From a regional perspective, the highlights were set by Eastern Europe, Austria, Iberia, the UK and Israel, all of which grew more than the DMASS average. Slightly down: Belgium, Norway, Sweden and Russia, the latter one showing effects of the sanctions applied by the EU.

The major regions in Q4 in detail: Germany grew 8.5% to 474 Million Euro, Eastern Europe by 23.7% to 192 Million Euro, Nordic by 6.8% to 161 Million Euro, Italy by 6.7% to 139 Million Euro, UK & Ireland by 12.3% to 135 Million Euro and France by 6.5% to 122 Million Euro. On an annualised basis, Germany remains the biggest market with over 2 Billion Euro of sales, representing 32% of DMASS.

Georg Steinberger adds:
- What is important to notice is that the distribution industry has proven resilient to the overall economic slowdown in Western and Southern Europe. Which means there is a lot of market dynamics driven by innovation rather than macro-economic effects. What is also important is the fact that currency effects are becoming more critical again. The drop of the Euro versus the Dollar within the last 12 months is staggering. 

On an annual basis, very few of the DMASS product categories were underperforming, most notably Memories (0.4% to 484 Million Euro), Programmable Logic (-3.1% to 484 Million Euro) and Other Logic (-5.9% to 303 Million Euro). On the positive side, Discretes grew by 17.2% to 363 Million Euro, Power by 10.5% to 639 Million Euro, Sensors by 9.7% to 137 Million Euro, Optoelectronics by 13.4% to 644 Million Euro, Analog by 9.9% to 1.8 Billion Euro and MOS Micro by 8.5% to 1.3 Billion Euro. The actual growth drivers were RF, MOSFETs, LEDs, NAND-Flash-Memories and 32-Bit Microcontrollers.

- My long-held conviction is proven time and again – distribution is not about selling commodities but about creating demand for complex technologies. Double digit growth mainly happens with more sophisticated products, where system knowledge or software expertise are required as well as engineering support, says Georg Steinberger: 

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 35 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.