<

publicité

br> The European semiconductor distribution industry is enjoying one of its most upbeat starts to a year for quite some time.

According to industry body, DMASS (Distributors’ and Manufacturers’ Association of Semiconductor Specialists), sales increased by just over 15% in the first three month’s of the year. This was the strongest growth since mid-2004.

The value of chip sales through distributors reached €1.38bn in the quarter, which is the highest sales number since 2001.


“The positive trend from end of last year continued into 2006. It seems that the overall positive outlook for the European economy echoed itself in the distribution customer base,” said Georg Steinberger, chairman of DMASS.

Steinberger said, however, there are similarities to 2004, when the business started strong in the first half but flattened out towards the end of the year.

“The strong development in the big four markets of UK, Germany, France and Italy suggests that the year 2006 may in fact have a good potential for distribution growth.” said Steinberger.

Germany steamed ahead with sales growth of 21% over Q1 last year, reaching a value of €439m.

The UK market grew by 8% to reach €149m. The surprise was Italy which grew by 12% to become the second largest European market for distributors with sales of €198m.

Inevitably there was strong sales growth in Czech, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Iberia and Israel, between 69% and 22%.

The most active product areas for distributors were analogue, microprocessors, power and optoelectronics.

Avnet has appointed Rick Hamada its first chief operating officer in eight years to assist chairman and CEO Roy Vallee. Hamada, who assumes the new position July 2, will head Avnet’s two operating divisions and is expected to manage the day-to-day activities of the $14 billion revenue company while Vallee turns his attention fully to strategic operations, including business development and acquisition programs.
Hamada has been at Avnet since 1983 and, until his recent appointment, was group president of Avnet Technology Solutions.

Semcon (sales of SEK 1.5 billion in 2005) will acquire 30 per cent of Devotek. Simultaneously Devotek, a Norwegian design company, will acquire Semcon Norge AS.
“We have worked with Devotek for 3 years and have now chosen to go one step further by acquiring 30 per cent of the company. At the same time we are selling Semcon Norge AS to Devotek. In this way we gain a stronger business on the Norwegian market,” says Semcon’s acting CEO, Lars-Inge Sjöqvist. “Norwegian industry currently has a significant demand for development services. Through joint ownership we gain faster access to a number of different business opportunities.”
The total purchase price is NOK 16 million of which part will be paid to Devotek via a new issue. The planned date for the deal’s conclusion is 2 June. The purchase price of all the shares in Semcon Norge is NOK 7 million.

Power supply specialist Delta Electronics will invest US$200 million to expand its production base in Guangdong Province, China, according to the Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN).

Anritsu, a provider of communications test and monitoring equipment, today announced the appointment of Paul Jeffs to the role of Director of European Field Marketing. Jeffs will lead the marketing operation in Europe, Middle-East and Africa for all Anritsu's test and measurement and 'service assurance' products, across all the markets it serves - wireless, wired and IP equipment vendors, and network operators in both the fixed-line and wireless sectors.

Capacitors supplier Kemet celebrated the grand opening of its second production facility in Suzhou, China, and announced its plans to add a third manufacturing facility in the Suzhou area within the next two years. The initial announcement of Suzhou Plant 2 was made in November 2003, ground was broken June 18, 2004, and the plant began shipping product in December 2004. Suzhou Plant 2 doubled Kemet's investment in China to a total of $70 million USD. KEMET currently employs 940 people in the Suzhou area.