Avnet Silica has brought out the latest edition of its quarterly Trendliner market report.

Providing an overview of global and European semiconductor market conditions, the latest report includes updated regional and application forecasts, alongside critical lead-time, supplier, and product-lifecycle updates.

With semiconductor demand strengthening but supply conditions remaining uneven, the Trendliner provides engineers and purchasing professionals with the market visibility needed to anticipate component constraints, align designs, and plan requirements further ahead.

The Q3 2026 report reflects a stronger market outlook than in the previous quarter. It now values the market at $454 billion, compared with the previous forecast of $433 billion, and projects further growth of 10.8% for 2027.

Among the wide range of developments covered in the Q3 Trendliner, key highlights include:

• European manufacturing improves: The Eurozone Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index remained in expansion for a fifth consecutive month in June. Manufacturing output increased from 51.3 to 51.7, contributing to the strongest quarter for European manufacturing since 2022. Export demand remains weak, however, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has reduced its 2026 European Union growth forecast.
• Industrial demand gains ground: Automotive remains the largest EMEA semiconductor vertical at $17 billion, followed by industrial applications at $12 billion. Industrial now represents 27% of the regional market, compared with 25% in the Q2 outlook.
• AI creates opportunities and constraints: High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) production continues to draw manufacturing capacity towards artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. This is tightening supply across broader memory categories and increasing costs for PCs, smartphones, servers, and embedded systems with DDR4 and LPDDR4 under allocation.
• High-growth applications extend beyond data centres: Automotive high-performance computing is forecast to achieve a three-year compound annual growth rate of 21.5%, followed by energy management at 13.0%, PCs at 12.0%, smartphones at 11.1% and industrial automation at 10.8%.
• Critical lead time insights: Lead times for sensors and actuators, microprocessors and microcontrollers continue to increase, with all now at 26 weeks or more. Many programmable logic devices also require customers to provide demand visibility through the end of the calendar year 2027.

“The stronger market outlook is encouraging, but it should not be mistaken for a return to simple or predictable supply conditions,” said Thomas Foj, Vice President Supplier Management, Solutions & Digitalisation EMEA at Avnet Silica. “AI investment is supporting demand well beyond data centres, while the prioritisation of HBM and other high-value products is placing pressure on memory and wider component availability. For industrial customers, early visibility, realistic forecasting, and long-term planning is essential to securing supply.”

Beyond the headline developments highlighted here, the Q3 Trendliner provides key market insights alongside a component-level view of pricing and lead-time movements, highlighting products under allocation and supplier or lifecycle changes that may affect future availability. This gives engineering and procurement teams the detail needed to assess risks to existing designs and plan component requirements for the quarters ahead.

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