First quarter 2016 European semiconductor sales

Looking at the semiconductor market in March, sales in Europe reached USD 2.667 billion. This represents a 0.1% increase compared to February 2016, when sales reached USD 2.663 billion. On a worldwide basis, semiconductor sales in March were USD 26.093 billion, up 0.3% from February and up 5.8% from March 2015. All growth figures represent a three month rolling average. Most of the main product categories grew steadily in March over February. Sales of discrete semiconductor devices increased by 10.3%, sales of sensors and actuators increased by 9.9%, and sales of analog and logic devices grew by 7.5% and 6.7% respectively. Semiconductor devices designed to be in specific applications also exhibited strong growth in Europe, growing by 6.8% in March compared to February. Worldwide, consumer and automotive were the strongest segments in March for application-specific chips. In March, the exchange rate affected the European sales picture when comparing market growth in Euros and in Dollars. Measured in Euro, semiconductor sales were EUR 2.419 billion in March 2016, down 0.6% versus the previous month.