Sales of semiconductors in October rose to $23.1 billion, an increase of 5 percent over the $22 billion reported in October 2006 and 2 percent higher than the $22.6 billion reported in September, 2007, according to the latest figures released from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).

Sales of $210.5 billion for the first 10 months of 2007 are running 3.9 percent ahead of the same period of 2006, when sales were $202.6 billion. Year-to-date sales are on pace with the SIA’s November forecast of 3.8 percent growth in worldwide sales for 2007.

Growth would have much stronger where it not for the “continued rapid price attrition in key sectors of the semiconductor market,” said SIA President George Scalise, which included memory and microprocessors, a continuing problem all year.

“Despite a 55 percent year-to-date increase in unit shipments, DRAM revenues are up only 4 percent over January through October 2006 sales,” remarked Scalise. “Strong unit demand for PCs has driven a 15 percent increase in unit sales of microprocessors for the first 10 months of 2007 compared to the same period of 2006. Revenues, however, are up only 4 percent compared to last year due to price attrition.”