Worldwide semiconductor sales rose 4.5 percent in May from April to $24.7 billion, helped by strong sales of personal computers, cell phones, corporate information technology, industrial applications and autos, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) said.

SIA expects unit sales of personal computers to grow by 20 percent and sales of cell phones to grow by 10 percent to 12 percent this year.

Chip sales rose 47.6 percent in May from a year ago, a slight decline from the April year-on-year growth rate.

The chip industry started rising from a trough and gaining momentum in the second half of 2009. As a result, industry year-on-year growth rates are likely to continue to slow down during the second half of 2010, SIA said.

Growing concerns about issues such as government debt, declining consumer confidence, and pressures on government spending do not appear to have affected worldwide semiconductor sales to date, SIA President George Scalise said.

He added that these issues bear watching given the chip industry's growing sensitivity to macroeconomic conditions.

Major chipmakers include Intel Corp, Texas Instruments Inc, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, National Semiconductor Corp, Nvidia Corp, Qualcomm Corp, STMicroelectronics, Samsung Electronics Co and Hynix Semiconductor. (Reporting by Manasi Phadke in Bangalore; Editing by Roshni Menon)

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