Worldwide sales of semiconductors grew to $18.8bn in October, an increase of 1.5 per cent on the $18.5bn in September and 22 per cent higher than sales in October 2003.
The latest figures from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) show that while growth is continuing, some market sectors suffered during October.
"Worldwide semiconductor sales were up by 1.5 per cent in October, reflecting ongoing inventory corrections in certain market segments," said SIA president George Scalise.
"Sales of digital signal processors were up by 8.5 per cent on the previous quarter, a sign that the inventory correction that began in the wireless handset market in July has run its course."
The SIA claimed this year's PC sales have been buoyed by strength in the corporate market. Sequential sales growth of 6.4 per cent for microprocessors and 2.8 per cent for DRam indicated that excess inventories have finally been sold off.
Les Billing, managing director of Microtronica, said: "The corporate replacement cycle has been kicking in, which has helped boost sales. Older machines are just running out of power, while businesses have to move away from older Windows operating systems that are no longer supported.
"Sales of Athlon 64 processors have been strong and there has been a lot of activity in the Flash memory market."
The SIA said strong consumer electronics sales boosted the overall figures for October and predicted that the trend will increase as Christmas approaches.
Scalise said: "Consumer electronics are becoming an increasingly important driver of growth for the semiconductor industry. Sales of consumer electronics are especially strong in Q4 as the Christmas build continues.
"Consumer electronics sales may be modulated somewhat this season by slower-than-expected growth in the sales of digital video recorders and a very competitive market in DVD players - factors that have put pressure on component suppliers."
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