Georg Steinberger

Europæisk halvledermarked i god form

DMASS-sammenslutningen har netop offentliggjort de seneste tal for udviklingen på den del af det europæiske marked for halvlederkomponenter, der sælges gennem distributionsnetværket (in english).

Georg Steinberger, chairman of DMASS, comments:
- We were happy to see Q3 turning out better than expected. The 7.3% has set us on a growth course for 2014 of 6 to 7% for DMASS Total, which is remarkable after the 2-year spluttering of 2012 and 2013. The results were positive across the regional board, with some selected negative exceptions. In the first 9 months, DMASS members reported semiconductor distribution sales of almost 4.8 Billion Euro. 2014 will end up a little short of the record year 2011.
 
Regionally, only Nordic, Benelux and Switzerland came in negatively in Q3/CY14, with France and Italy reporting positive although under-proportional growth. On the positive side, Turkey, Russia, UK, Iberia, Austria, Israel and Germany showed above-average sales increase.

The major regions reported the following quarterly sales numbers: Germany 510 Million Euro, Eastern Europe 177 Million Euro, Nordic 146 Million Euro, Italy 136 Million Euro, UK 135 Million Euro and France 121 Million Euro. Over 9 months the regional split of DMASS shows a share of 32% for Germany, 9.8% for Italy, 8.5 for the UK, 7.7% for France, 9% for Nordic and 11.2% for Eastern Europe.

Georg Steinberger:
- No big surprises occurred over the last 9 months, apart from: Nordic lost more ground in its manufacturing base, losing electronics production to Eastern Europe or Asia. And the impact of sanctions on the Russian business did not yet materialise in Q3. In general, considering the macro-economic environment for Europe at the moment, the outlook for 2015 is only moderate. However, Europeans tend to see glass half-full far too often for my taste. Let us be hopeful that 2015 will have some positive surprises for our industry.
 
Product-wise, the growth leaders in Q3 were again Optoelectronics (15.7% to 165 Million Euro), driven by LEDs and Fibre-Optics, Discretes (15.1% to 91 Million Euro) and analog (10.1% to 459 Million Euro). On MOS Micro DMASS reported sales of 322 Million Euro (+5.5%). Memories grew by 2.8% to 119 Million Euro, Programmable Logic remained flat at 124 Million Euro and Other Logic (ASSPs, ASICs etc.) declined by 10.5% to 71 Million Euro.

Georg Steinberger:
- Over a period of nine quarters the sweet spots of growth were clearly LEDs, Flash-Memories, High-End MCUs and Advanced Analog. This shows that the growth is actually more driven by a verticalisation of the market rather than the broadline distribution model of the past. Technical expertise on the system side is more than ever important for distributors to participate in growth trends.
 
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 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.