European semiconductor distribution starts 2016 positively

Georg Steinberger, Chairman, DMASS, commented: “We have, for the time being, entered a very stable market environment, with little friction from currency effects and very little effects so far from weak markets in Asia, especially China. Q1/CY16 ended surprisingly well, with 8.4% growth. After last year’s double-digit growth, we would regard this as normalisation. Considering the positive booking situation, we would expect strong first half year 2016.”

Regionally, it was positive to note that Italy and Germany, the two biggest sales regions within DMASS, contributed over-proportionally to the quarterly growth. Germany ended Q1 with a plus of 11.7% at €606m, Italy with a plus of 19.9% at €198m. Eastern Europe continued on its long-term growth path and grew by 15.3% to €265m (without Russia). The UK market suffered from its own currency problems and reported -0.4% decline to €147m. France grew by 4.6% to €144m and the Nordic countries experienced a comparably steep decline of 7.7% to €163m.

Steinberger added: “The biggest surprise is certainly the resilience of the Italian distribution market. And the fact that Germany 'recovered' after several quarters of sub-par performance is also a good sign. It will be interesting to see if these trends continue further into the year.”

On the product-side, DMASS reported double-digit growth in sensors, opto, memories, MOS micro logic and standard logic. Analogue products, by far the biggest segment, ended almost spot on, with 8.7% growth to €579m. MOS Micro grew by 10.2% to €394m, opto by 15.5% to €202m, Memories by 12.7% to €156m and sensors (key product for automotive and IOT) by 16% to €42m. A negative surprise was programmable logic, which stayed flat at €140m. Discretes and power discretes saw under-proportional growth of 1.4% to €101m and 3.1% to €184m, respectively.