LONDON — The three-month average of global chip sales climbed to $22.8 billion in October, up from $22.6 billion in September, according to Bruce Diesen, an analyst with Terra Securities ASA. However, unadjusted year-on-year sales are set to have fallen 2.5 percent in October versus September, Diesen said.

Diesen said he expected a 3 percent dollar increase in worldwide chip sales in 2007, but had cut his forecast for growth in 2008 from 9 to 8 percent. "For October, we think wafer starts grew 14 percent year/year. Wafer starts grew a strong 17.6 percent in Q3 according to Sicas, beating our estimate of 15 percent. That is positive for polysilicon producers like MEMC, Wacker, Hemlock and REC, as well as for wafer producers such as MEMC, Wacker, Sumco and Shin-Etsu. Wafer starts are the best measure of semiconductor volumes," Diesen said. "We estimate 12 percent growth in wafer starts in 2007 followed by another 12 percent in 2008. We expect a 14 pecent increase in world handset sales in 2007, followed by 13 percent in 2008, helped by the low cost handset trend. Those estimates are unchanged," he added.