European sales of components through distribution continue to decline.
The latest market figures from IDEA (the International Distribution of Electronics Association) for the European DTAM (distributor total available market) show a 9% fall year on year for the first three months of 2008.
The quarterly sales were 3.8% ahead of the last quarter of 2007, this brings little joy to the market.
According to Silvio Baronchelli, president of IDEA, the European component DTAM in Q1 has shown a quarter-on-quarter growth but below the expected level. In Europe Q1 is usually the strongest quarter.
“Q1 has historically been the leading growth quarter in Europe, however global economic forecasts suggest that overall economic activity is likely to decline, which may impact electronic component markets and restrict growth in 2008,” commented Baronchelli.
New orders for semiconductors in Q1 fell, year-on-year, by 12%, by 0.2% for Passive and by 6.9% for e-mech and other components.