Worldwide sales of semiconductors are breaking all records according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). Sales of semiconductors were $24.7 billion in May 2010, resetting the record of $23.6 billion achieved in April.

SIA president George Scalise said that global sales of semiconductors in May reached a new high and remain on pace to reach the SIA forecast of 28.4 per cent growth to 290.5 billion in 2010. The sales appear to be pushed up by the strength in sales of PCs, handsets, corporate IT, industrial applications and cars. He is expecting unit sales of PCs are now expected to grow by 20 per cent this year, and mobile phone unit sales to increase between 10-12 per cent over last year.

Most of the sales are not being seen in the west. In fact the chip market growth is coming from China and India. The automotive market and corporate IT and industrial sectors are slowly recovering after several years of weak sales. May sales of $24.7 billion were 47.6 percent higher than the $16.7 billion reported for the same month of 2009. While the figures look good, it is mostly in comparison to truly pants first quarter year in 2009.

The industry is still a little concerned about problems such as government debt, declining consumer confidence, and pressures on government. However this does not appear to have affected worldwide semiconductor sales so far, Scalise said.