Electronics distributors don't see more demand yet

By Georgina Prodhan and Paul Sandle

LONDON (Reuters) - Electronics distributors are not yet seeing any improvement in demand for the roughly $350 billion worth of computers and components they channel to buyers worldwide every year except in China and a few niche areas.

At a conference in London, some of the world's biggest distribution companies said the supply chain for electronic goods was moving again after practically grinding to a halt, but it was too early to speak of any broad-based recovery.

"For people to start throwing out green-shoot messages, as a lot of people were doing two, three months ago, they are eating crow at this stage," Greg Spierkel, chief executive of the world's biggest distributor Ingram Micro, told Reuters.

European distributors, such as Italy's Esprinet, were even less optimistic. "So far, we don't see any major sign or any minor sign of improvement," CEO Alessandro Cattani told the meeting of the Global Technology Distribution Council.

Distributors are used by large technology vendors such as HP, Dell or IBM to reach thousands of mainly smaller customers such as small firms and retailers, giving them insight over a broad customer base.

Roy Vallee, CEO of U.S. components distributor Avnet, described himself as a "card-carrying optimist" at the Tuesday conference, but said he saw no evidence of increased demand outside China.

"Outside of China's indigenous demand, which is being driven by their stimulus package, where else is demand actually up?"

"It's certainly not here (Europe), not the U.S, not Japan, so what we have is not restocking. It is a supply chain ordering again but ordering at a lower level than six months ago," he told Reuters.