European semi sales buck seasonal trend and grow by 17.9%

Sales of semiconductors through industrial distribution channels in the third quarter of 2015 reached €1.86billion, 17.9% higher than in the same quarter of 2014. According to DMASS, the Distributors’ and Manufacturers’ Association of Semiconductor Specialists, this level of sales is ‘surprising’ as the summer quarter normally shows a sequential decline.


While the Euro/US dollar exchange rate has played a role, DMASS claims a significant portion of the growth remains organic, with volumes growing by ‘double digits’.

Georg Steinberger, chairman of DMASS, noted: “This will become a record year for DMASS, breaking the €7bn mark for sure. Even though the exchange rate effects will soon disappear, European semiconductor distributors will continue to grow, albeit at a slower pace.”

One reason for the strong showing in Q3 was ‘massive growth in almost all of Eastern Europe’, said DMASS. While sales in Eastern Europe (excluding Russia) grew by 37.6%, those in the UK grew by 17.4% to €158million. German sales grew by 15.8% and those in France by 10%.

Steinberger added: “It’s the same story as in Q2: the numbers are highly influenced by different invoicing trends per region (in Dollars instead of Euros) and like in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe by huge growth in the supply chain sector. As the Euro/Dollar comparison will become less in Q4, growth rates should normalise accordingly.”

Analogue was the major product group, growing by the DMASS average of 17.9%; but demand for microprocessors, microcontrollers and DSPs grew by 21.5% and ‘other logic’, such as ASSPs, ASICs and other complex logic devices, increased by 32.1%. Discrete, standard logic and programmable logic saw sales grow by between 10 and 14.5%.

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