According to DMASS (Distributors’ and Manufacturers’ Association of Semiconductor Specialists), the semiconductor distributor and manufacturer members achieved quarterly distribution revenues of 1.34 Billion Euro in Q2/2008, which represents a decline of “only” 3.6%. Sequentially (against Q1/2008), sales were down by 3.3%. As the downturn of the European components market started in Q2 2007, the last quarter (Q2/2008) compared against a soft period. This explains that Q2 2008 ended better than expected.

The regional differences showed a similar pattern to previous quarters – Germany and Eastern Europe doing significantly better than the rest, most countries in a mid-single-digit decline and some countries in a steep fall. Of the bigger sales regions, Germany stayed flat with -0.5% (437 Million Euro). Italy (174 Million Euro), France (111 Million Euro), Nordic, Iberia and Switzerland ended with a relatively soft decline between -3.51% (Iberia) and -5.2% (Switzerland). Benelux again recorded a decline in the -14% to -15% range, while the UK dropped 16.3% to 116 Million Euro. Eastern Europe continued to grow by double digits (11%) to 170 Million Euro. Russia and the emerging countries (Baltic stats et al) drove the growth with 23% and 24.9% respectively.

By product, the picture in Q2/2008 also looked quite different. A double-digit weakness seems to have befallen the logic sector (Programmable Logic, Standard Logic, and Other Logic ), while Discretes, Analog and MOS Micro, who together represent 70% of the DMASS Total, ended between -0.2% and -2.1% down compared to Q2/2007. For individual products, positive growth figures were recorded for IGBTs (34.4%), DSPs (11.4%), Other Discretes (10.4%), MPUs (9.1%), RF (8.7%) and DRAMs (7.7%). The losers were Programmable Memories (Flash, EPROM and EEPROM), LED Displays, Couplers and Other Power products.