Leadtimes are going crazy and double-ordering is commonplace. But it will all look a lot better in September.
That seems to be the most optimistic view I can find on the current supply side shortages in the distribution market.
Businesses seem to have given guarded approval to George Osborne's first Budget, even if they are gritting their teeth over growth prospects next year due to the rise in VAT.
Terry Scuoler, chief executive of manufacturers' organisation the EEF, said the Budget "may have given manufacturers much-needed clarity on how the government will go about reducing the deficit."
"But the short-term pressure to start tackling the deficit means the Chancellor has only done part of the job of rebalancing the economy," said Scuoler.
Southampton-based systems manufacturer BVM is celebrating 21 years in business.
To take the company forward, BVM has appointed Robert Wainwright as general manager.
The plan is to streamline the manufacturing process and carry out investment that could double the size of teh company over the next five years.
Company founders Rod Clarke and David Smith are pictured with Wainwright (centre).
BVM supplies embedded computer boards used in applications such as data capture, on the London Underground, point of sale terminals and vehicle mounted systems.
It is undeniable that the European components market has bounced back surprisingly quickly.
According to Harriet Green, Premier Farnell's chief executive: "We haven't been a catalogue company for some time now."
True, the broadline distributor currently does 44% of its business over the web. But it still prints and mails out 100,000s of print catalogues.
"It is the most effective form of direct mail we have," says Green.
But the balance between the traditional catalogue based business and the new online business is shifting faster than even Green thought it would just two years ago.
She now talks of the online business in specific geographic markets having approached "the tipping point".
In Europe, the web currently carries 60% of Farnell's business. In Asia Pacific its 54%. Just the American markets are lagging behind at just under 30% online business.
The move to online has been so dramatic that Green has changed her three year target and she now expects that within three years 70% of Farnell's business will be via the web.
Then Farnell won' be a catalogue company.
"We haven't been that for some time now, but the important thing now is to go beyond the transaction," says Green.
"Anyone can do a really good transactional website," says Green, "the clever bit is to go beyond the transaction, which is where we are going with element14."
According to Green, more than 6,000 customers a day are using the element14 website and design community.
Just 6.5% of these end up at the distributor's transactional websites.
But for Green, today element14 is not about sales, it is about building a community of users which one day could become the distributor's biggest asset.
When that point is reached Farnell will no longer need a catalogue.
The 2009 market downturn could come to represent the beginning of the end game for the electronics catalogue.
But you won't get Harriet Green to admit to that, not exactly anyway.
"Healthy demand in all major product sectors and in all geographic markets drove sales of semiconductors to record levels in the first four months of 2010," said Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) president George Scalise.
The SIA's updated industry forecast points to chip sales growth of 28.4% in 2010.
Scalise sees signs that global economic growth rates of around 4.6% in 2010 will be enough to sustain true demand for semiconductors this year and next.
"These emerging markets - especially China and India - are creating demand for IT products, which in turn fuels demand for semiconductors," Scalise concluded.
I've taken delivery of an iPad and the semiconductor market is growing at an annual rate of something above 30%.
Is this as good as it gets?
Rutronik is now carrying wireless components from Fujitsu including GPS, WLAN and Bluetooth modules as well as combination modules with Bluetooth and WLAN.
Mouser Electronics has reached a distribution agreement with Panasonic's industrial components and electronic devices division.
The distributor will carry the line on its website and will stock capacitors, RF modules, switches, inductors, resistors as well as other Panasonic passive and semiconductor components.
Electrocomponents, owner of RS Components, is the latest distributor to call a growing market with sales picking up dramatically in the last six months.
