DMASS reports 6.5% chip sales growth in Q3

9th November 2018

(DMASS) Distributors’ and Manufacturers’ Association of Semiconductor Specialists

Mick Elliott

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Healthy mid-single-digit growth has been the order of the day for the European semiconductor distribution industry this year. With product shortages and price increases continuing through the summer, Q3/2018 ended, according to DMASS, with 2.3bn Euro of sales, an increase of 6.3% compared to 2017. The first nine months of 2018 showed exactly the same increase of 6.3%, to 6.91bn Euro of sales.

Georg Steinberger, chairman of DMASS commented: “Compared to the double-digit projections we keep seeing for the total European semiconductor market from WSTS and others, European distribution does not seem to enjoy the same dynamics. However, most of their total projections are in US Dollars. Stated in US Dollars as well, DMASS grew by 14% in the first nine months of 2018.”

By country and region, the growth spread in Q3/2018 is rather large, between +41% and -17%. Of the major regions/countries, Eastern Europe and Benelux led the pack, while Germany, Austria, Russia and Nordic trailed the average growth. In numbers, Germany grew by 2.4% to 700m Euro, Italy rose 5% to 193m, and the UK posted a healthy 9.5% increase to 166m Euro. France sales vaulted 9% to 155m Euro, Eastern Europe sales rcoketed 15.6% to 375m Euro and Nordic edged foreard 3.2% to 189m Euro.

Added Steinberger: “After 9 months, it shows clearly that countries with a rather huge contract manufacturing focus are growing significantly faster than the major countries in Western Europe. And most of these contractor countries are in the East and to some extent the South of Europe.”

On the product side, growth rates were widely distributed, too – between -17% and +45%. Similarly to Q2, commodities like Discretes and Standard Logic did exceptionally well, while the key areas Analogue and MOS Micro trailed the trend – although for different reasons – and Opto products actually decreased.

Discretes grew by 23.5% to 141m Euro, Power Discretes were up 12.1% to 240m Euro, andSensor sales rose 11.4% to 56m Euro.

On the downside Opto shrank by 2.7% to 210m Euro.

Analogue ICs crept up 3.4% to 678m Euro, Memories increased by 9.9% to 189m Euro, MOS Micro was up 3.7% to 466m Euro, and Programmable Logic rose 6.8% to 147m Euro. Standard Logic grew 9.9% to 40m and finally Other Logic (ASSPs etc.) advanced 11.4% to 128m Euro.

Georg Steinberger: “What is clearly visible from a 9-months-view, is that a group of commodities did really well, while some areas like LEDs, Analogue and “older” MOS Micro technologies suffered. In the MOS Micro arena it seems that MPUs and higher end MCUs are taking control, while the Analog field is seeing former distribution business being handled by manufacturers direct. For the year 2018, we maintain our position of a solid single-digit ending.”