According to DMASS, the European semiconductor industry maintained steady growth in 2018. As of the end of the first quarter, total sales were 2.28 billion euros, an increase of 6.9% from the first quarter of 2017 and 3% higher than the fourth quarter of 2017.
Georg Steinberger, chairman of DMASS: “As we face peak demand in many industries and long lead-times for many semiconductor products, the growth is no surprise. It could have been even higher, considering channel shifts back to some manufacturers and the negative exchange rate effects from a weak US-Dollar. It remains to be seen how sustainable this is, considering that customers have to push out production in many instances due to hard allocation in other component segments. Nevertheless, at the moment outlook is solid.”
From the regional point of view, the fastest increase was in Northern Europe and Eastern Europe, as well as in Austria and Iberia, where the growth reached double digits. In the larger region, Italy has the fastest growth, sales of 220 million euros, an increase of 9.7%; followed by Germany, an increase of 6.4%, sales of 695 million euros, followed by the United Kingdom, an increase of 6.3%, total sales are 166 million euros. France is below average growth, but there is also 3.4%, with sales of 157 million euros. Total sales in Eastern Europe were 366 million euros, a total increase of 12%, and Northern Europe was 187 million euros, an increase of 5.4%.
Georg Steinberger added: “In short, small countries grow faster than big countries. The combination of rapid development countries is surprising, however, from the relatively small impact of the Nordic high-tech economy on the growing importance of production centers in Eastern Europe. The high-tech industry continues to receive surprises."
From a product perspective, it can be seen that in discrete devices (small-signal, RF discrete), power discrete devices (MOSFET) and sensor strong and programmable logic have all achieved double-digit growth, while optoelectronics, analog, memory and other logic products (ASSPs) is between 1% and 2.5%. Analog, the largest group of products, total sales of 672 million euros, an increase of 2.4%, power supply by 16.9% to 241 million euros, optoelectronics (including LED) by 2.3% to 217 million euros, and memory by 2.4% to 184 million euros Programmable logic is 13.5% to 153 million euros.
“Looking at the market by product, we cannot see a very consistent picture in Q1, some of the below-average increases in big product categories may be driven by allocation or channel shifts. However, one quarter does not really tell a story. After the dust of various market effects has settled, the situation may become clearer (and so far the weight of the big product groups has not really changed dramatically).” Said Georg Steinberger.
