The European semiconductor distribution market followed a strange but foreseeable route in 2012, reports DMASS (Distributors’ and Manufacturers’ Association of Semiconductor Specialists).
After a record H1 2011, H1 2012 was down. 2012 finished with a decline of 10.8% on 2011 and total sales revenues of €5.7bn.
“We are in a market of high price pressure and huge swings in demand and supply,” says Georg Steinberger, chairman of DMASS.
Whereas in 2010 and 2011, Germany and Eastern Europe (including Russia) were constantly gaining share against other Western Regions, in 2012 Germany faced a decline of 16.2% to €1.8bn; Germany’s share of the total market went from 34% to 31%.
Eastern Europe instead grew by over 8% (including Russia, which alone grew by 16%) and widened its share of the market to 16%.
Eastern Europe (including Russia) grew to €834m. The other countries and regions ended at or around the average. Israel was an exception and grew by 11%, mainly due to reporting changes.
“While Italy certainly fell victim to the macro-economic environment with a huge loss of production to the East, Germany’s weakness might be sector-related (Automotive) and also may have experienced some corrections to an overheated 24-months period in 2010/2011,” says Steinberger.
Standard Logic
Discretes, Power, MOS Micro and Standard Logic suffered most, with an annual decline between 15 and 20%, while Opto, Analog, Memories, Programmable Logic and Other Logic dropped between 4.3 and 9.9%.
The only specific product areas that actually grew year over year were Sensors, High-Power-LEDs, NAND-Flash and DRAMs. The biggest product groups remained Power, Analog, MOS Micro and Programmable Logic.
"Apart from some high-growth areas or commodity-related products, the decline of sales was across the board and most probably due to general market weakness, full inventories and price pressure,” says Steinberger.
