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Jim Carbone -- Purchasing, 10/21/2004 2:00:00 AM
Electronics distribution will have another good year in 2004 despite a weak third quarter. "Business was going well through August for everyone particularly the smaller distributors," says Robin Gray, executive vice president of the National Electronic Distributors Association (NEDA). "Larger volume guys found some softness in the August-September time frame."
Most distributors should have annual growth of 13-14% despite weakness in the third quarter.
Gray says distribution is being affected by "just in time ordering. No one wants to have inventory anymore. If there is not a product on allocation and leadtimes aren't pushed out buyers are going to order parts when they need them. They are ordering in small quantities and ordering more frequently," he says.
Catalog distributors, which specialize in small orders, may be benefiting from the trend. Catalog distributors say they did not feel the slowdown the larger distributors saw in the summer. (See story on this page)
"In addition, I don't think catalog distributors felt the loss of global manufacturing companies to Asia and other low-cost areas. Design is still here," says Gray. A lot of orders to catalog distributor are for parts that are used in prototype builds.
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