European Semiconductor Distribution On the Way to Recovery
As expected, the European Semiconductor Market could not recover completely to the record levels of Q1 2011.
Although DMASS (Distributors' and Manufacturers' Association of Semiconductor Specialists), reported the 4th highest quarter sales in its history, the drop from Q1 2011 was as high as 15%. The quarter ended at €1.54 billion.
On a positive note though, with inventory correction, recovery is on the way, with a sequential growth (over Q4 2011) of 14%.
Georg Steinberger, chairman of DMASS, notes, "We could not imagine to really go back to Q1 2011 record levels. The market conditions were quite different then. Throughout the beginning of 2012, inventory correction and careful ordering by customers still played a major role and kept the bookings levels relatively moderate. With a start of -15% into the year, it is almost clear that 2012 will at best be flat against 2011."
The regional difference again was seen in Eastern Europe and Russia.
While all Western European markets on an annual basis declined between 9.1%
(Iberia) and 27.8% (Austria), not including Russia, Eastern Europe grew by 6.6%
and Russia by 4.4%.
The major regions behaved quite differently. Germany declined by 18.6% to €522 million, Italy by 24.9% to €150 million, the UK by 15.9% to €122 million and finally France by 12.1% to €115 million. The Nordic region, including the Baltic States, dropped by 21.5% to €150 million.
Commenting on the results, Georg Steinberger adds, "The well-known tendency of production transfers to Eastern Europe continues. Most of the reported sales come from the transfer; the local design-driven markets develop at a slower pace, but nevertheless promisingly. Russia is competing with Benelux for the number 5 rank of countries/regions."
Product-wise, the only products showing year over year growth were
high-brightness LEDs, Other Opto and DRAMs, all others declined with the usual
bandwidth between -2.2% (MPUs) and Couplers (27.8%).
The major product groups declined by 16.5% (Analogue to €436 million), 17.8% (MOS Micro to €319 million), 10.9% (Programmable Logic to €145 million) and 19.5% (Power to €152 million). Memories Total, Opto Total and Other Logic went down under-proportionally.
Steinberger concludes, "There is not a clear against-the-trend picture among the products, except maybe the High-brightness LEDs which finally take up speed. And certainly MCUs were suffering over-proportionally and also see a slower comeback than other products. No surprise are legacy technologies like EPROMs and Bipolar Power slowly dwindling away, as they are replaced by Flash respective MOSFETs and IGBTs."
DMASS, a European non-profit organisation, collates detailed semiconductor distribution market data on a quarterly basis by country and product groups such as microcontrollers, flash memories and analogue components.
The organisation, founded in 1989, currently consists of 35 active members, which it says represents between 80% and 85% of the total European distribution market, depending on the regions.
