Electronic component design and procurement trends from a global perspective
Recently, the global electronic component design and procurement field has shown significant positive changes. Specifically, design activities increased by 2% month-on-month, while procurement activities increased by 5% month-on-month. This change exceeded the industry benchmark value and fully reflected the strong market demand for electronic components and its development trend that far exceeded historical levels.
Of particular concern is growth in activity in the United States and Canada, driven by a moderation in price increases that has allowed manufacturing activity in these countries to remain stable. Specific data shows that the growth in design and procurement in the United States reached 7% and 15% respectively, while Canada achieved growth of 8% and 2% respectively. Looking at the broader Americas region, its overall growth rates are 10% and 13% respectively. This data strongly confirms the vigorous development of the region in the field of electronic components.
Asia Pacific and EMEA remained stable in terms of design activity, but sourcing activity in Asia Pacific experienced a 4% sequential increase, while EMEA experienced a 3% sequential decline. This difference reflects the diversity of market demand and supply chain conditions in different regions.
At the industry level, demand in the automotive and cloud computing/data center industries continues to grow, while the consumer electronics and PC industries show signs of slowing demand. This trend of differentiation reveals the diversification of industry development and the imbalance of market demand.
An in-depth analysis of global design activity
Globally, design activity showed 2% month-on-month growth and 5% year-on-year growth. In particular, the Americas region made significant progress in design activities in August, with a month-on-month increase of 10% and a year-on-year increase of 14%. This growth is mainly concentrated in countries such as the United States, Canada and Brazil, and covers major product categories such as connectors, capacitors, diodes and logic devices.
Design activity in the Asia-Pacific region remains stable. Notably, design activity in China, India and South Korea declined between July and August, affected by lower demand for consumer electronics. At the same time, design activities in Japan, Taiwan, and Australia achieved month-on-month growth. The main product categories with increased demand include connectors, semiconductor devices, power products, sensors, and oscillators.
In Europe, the Middle East and Africa, design activity was flat month-on-month but up 5% year-on-year. Among them, design activities in Germany and the UK have increased, while those in France, Italy, Russia and Spain have shown a downward trend. Key product categories in the region include connectors, power products, semiconductor devices and oscillators.
Comprehensive overview of procurement activities
Globally, procurement activity increased 5% sequentially, driven by strong performance in the Americas and Asia Pacific. In the Americas region, procurement activity increased by 13% month-on-month, while the Asia Pacific region achieved a month-on-month growth of 4%. In contrast, in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, purchasing activities fell by 3% month-on-month due to seasonal factors.
In the Americas, especially the United States, procurement activity increased by as much as 15% month-on-month. This performance is better than the historical average growth rate for this period (+5% to +7%) and is consistent with the steady growth reported by the Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI). The U.S.'s strong performance this month was helped by a slowdown in price increases and improving inventory conditions. Demand increased across all product categories, most notably for semiconductor devices.
The Asia-Pacific region achieved 4% sequential growth in purchasing activity, led by China, Taiwan and Singapore. Major growth product categories include power circuits, microcontrollers/microprocessors, and transistors.
In Europe, the Middle East and Africa, purchasing activity fell 3% sequentially. The performance was in line with typical monthly expectations for the region, with demand falling across all product categories.