A lot of this growth can be explained by markets and consumers driving demand as the world emerges from covid shutdowns. Economic uncertainty and the spectre of inflation dampening demand for many consumer products casts a shadow over the good news, however. DMASS admits that the future looks “increasingly unpredictable” citing selective availability problems.
Chairman, Hermann Reiter, said: “Reading all the gloomy market outlooks for the global semiconductor market, these Q3 results most certainly must have come as a surprise to everyone. If availability had been better, I am sure distribution could have delivered even more. The significant growth is really due to a mix of price increases, exchange rate effects and improved availability from manufacturers. However, we also see relief in some components areas from an availability perspective”.
He believes the industry has reached a high plateau in terms of sales “that will be hard to retain into next year”.
“We think customers have covered a significant portion of their 2023 demand already in 2022, as can be seen with lower incoming orders,” he added.
Regionally the Q3 semiconductor distribution sales were strongest in Germany, which grew 53% (1.03bn Euros), followed by France (51%), Italy (46%) and the UK (32%). Smaller markets, measured in millions of Euros also saw large gains. Eastern Europe increased by 50%, Nordic countries by 47%, Israel increased by 85%, Iberia by 59%, Benelux by 39%, Switzerland by 47% and Austria by 66%. Sales in Russia came to “an almost complete halt” – the only surprise there is that there are any sales to record, considering that the country invaded the Ukraine in February and was met with disapproval and sanctions as a result.
Breaking down the market according to sectors, the opto market suffered from a drop in LED sales, recording just an 8% increase in distribution sales. There was 90% growth in other logic (ASSPs) and MOS micro and analogue remained strong with 47% and 46.7% growth respectively.
Memories increased by 60% (flash, 68%), programmable logic increased by 61%, power gained 37.4% while discretes increased by 21%, sensors grew by 39%.
Electromechanical products grew by 15.2%, passives by 13% and power supplies grew by 24.6% over the quarter.
Reiter warns of an unpredictable future. “While the long-term outlook especially for semiconductors looks great, weak demand already leaves its skid marks in 2022’s global market and could well lead to a bumpy time ahead,” he said. He added that Europe and especially
distribution have shown great resilience so far, and with a strong industrial base there are many opportunities for sustainable growth. “The awareness for digitalisation, a transformation of the energy infrastructure and the need for rethinking future living concepts and mobility is extremely high and hopefully translates into more interesting projects with our customers,” he said.
