European semi sales slide
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Revenues from sales of semiconductors in Europe declined by 6% in the fourth quarter of 2007 and by 1.9% for the full year, according to DMASS, the Distributors’ and Manufacturers’ Association of Semiconductor Specialists. The group claimed distribution revenues in Q4 were €1.21billion and €5.37bn Euro for 2007.
Ian Bass, DMASS chairman, said: “After the record year in 2006, a cyclical slowdown was almost inevitable. I would call a decline of 1.9% a comparably soft landing. From our perspective, the slight downturn is not demand or volume driven – a clear indication of a strong manufacturing base in Europe – but strongly influenced by the weak US Dollar and the huge price difference between Europe and Asia. Nevertheless, as an indication, DMASS’ 2007 revenues in US Dollars grew by 6.6%.”
Regionally, Eastern Europe saw business increase by 15.9%, but UK revenues declined by 15.7% to €515m. From a product segment perspective, the largest sales were of standard analogue (€1.1bn) and microcontrollers (€948m)
Bass added: “Europe is doing much better than the numbers might suggest and has huge opportunities to dominate some dynamic markets like industrial, automotive and increasingly environmental technology, globally. Europe is leading the development in those fields and will benefit from it in the next up cycle.”
