The economic crisis of the first part of the year hit the UK component distribution market hard.
According to figures from Afdec, the distribution industry body, the component distribution market will shrink by 13% this year.
Afdec predicts that with only signs of slow growth appearing in the market it does not expect the UK/Ireland market to return to consistent growth before the second half of 2010.
"Although the growth in the Asian economies, particularly China, is currently fuelling a strong upturn in the demand for electronic components globally, our members do not see signs of a corresponding rise in demand in the USA, Europe or UK/Eire," said Afdec.
Predictions for the distribution market in 2010 are growth in the range 2.1% to 6.9% by the end of the year.
“Customer confidence is improving but remains weak with limited supply network visibility, our conclusion is that the overall UK/Eire TAM will increase by 2.2% from £2.94Bn in 2009 to £3.01Bn in 2010 so we are headed towards growth at last," said Adam Fletcher, chairman of Afdec.
“The global electronics market is recovering but the rate of growth in the main geographic markets and between distributors with different business models is not consistent, said Fletcher.
Another feature of the downturn has been that distribution's share of the UK components market is predicted to increase to 31.5% in 2010.
See blog: Distribution market in 2010, or looking on the bright side