Source: DMASS [click to enlarge]

The steepest decline of semiconductor distribution revenue since the Internet bubble burst in 2001/2002 with no region or technology spared defined the first quarter of 2009. Q1/2009 ended with consolidated sales of DMASS members through distribution of 992 Million €, the lowest quarterly result since Q4/2003. Compared to Q1/2008 this represents a decline of 26.3%. Note to editors: DMASS only reports industrial semiconductor sales, defined as all semiconductors, excluding the PC channel.

All regions were affected almost equally. Instead of winners, the market had from a regional perspective at best some “luckier losers”: Of the bigger countries only France declined less than 20% (-17.3%) to 91 Million € compared to Q1/2008, though due to acquisitions an accurate historical comparison cannot be made. The UK declined by 24.6% to 86 Million €, Germany 27.2% to 329 Million €. The biggest hit was dealt to the Italian market with a decline of 34.3% to 116 Million €. The Eastern European economies ran into over-proportional trouble with a decline of 29% to 93 Million €, falling in total size behind Nordic (94 Million €), which only declined by 23.4%.

Product-wise, all major product groups went down in Q1/2009 compared to Q1/2008. Only Memories, Other Logic and Programmable Logic came in with less than 20% decline while Analog and MOS Micro Logic, by far the biggest product groups, declined by 25.2% and 29.4% respectively to 275 Million € and 221 Million € respectively. Among the biggest losers were Standard Logic (-34.8%) and Discretes (-31.8%). The only products that declined “only” single digit were LEDs, Flash Memories and DSP, none of which represents any specific positive trend.