European semiconductor distribution market<br>returns to normal growth rates in Q1/07

After a record year for growth in 2006, the start of 2007 experienced a slowdown. Rates came back to single digits compared to all time high sales levels of 2006, which can still be considered a success. According to DMASS (Distributors' and Manufacturers' Association of Semiconductor Specialists), the semiconductor distributor and manufacturer members achieved a quarterly growth of 4.8% to 1.48 Billion Euro. The sequential comparison (to Q4/06) shows an increase of sales of 14.5%. While the total DMASS numbers were relatively positive, the regional trend shows a different picture. Germany grew again over-proportionally by 9.8%, France and UK turned negative (-3.6% respectively -6.6%) and Italy stayed almost flat (0.8%). In total the German market has reached record levels of 491 Million € or one third of DMASS' totals, and again bigger than UK (146 Million €), France (129 Million €) and Italy (201 Million €) together. The big regional winners of the last quarter were Poland (41%), Russia (30%), Benelux (24.4%), Switzerland (15.3%) and Norway (14.7%). Eastern Europe is on its way to catch up with the UK and to become the 3rd largest sales region, after Germany and Italy. By product sectors, Discrete (9.7%), Analog (7.1%) and to some extent Opto products (5%) drove the quarterly development. The dominant single product segments are Standard Analog which grew 10.2% to 311 Million €, and Microcontrollers which went up 8% to 255 Million €. The highest growth rates by product were achieved by SRAMs (33.5%), Power FET (16.2%) and Small Signal Products (10.7%). The biggest decline could be found within Other MOS Logic (-21.9%), LED Displays (-11.3%), EEPROMs (-11.1%) and Microprocessors (-11%).