The San Jose, California-based SIA said global sales of semiconductors were 7.2 percent lower in November than the 22.4 billion dollars in October 2008.

It said that excluding memory chips, which have been suffering from a supply glut, semiconductor sales declined 4.8 percent in November compared with the same month last year -- to 17.3 billion dollars from 18.2 billion dollars.

Sales for the first 11 months of 2008 were 232.7 billion dollars, the SIA said, an increase of 0.2 percent from the first 11 months of 2007. Excluding memory products, year-to-date industry sales increased 5.6 percent, it said.

"The worldwide economic crisis is having an impact on demand for semiconductors, but to a lesser degree than some other major industry sectors," said SIA president George Scalise. "We expect the industry will remain the second largest exporter in the US for 2008."

Scalise said "not all segments of the industry are being affected equally by the downturn.

"The memory market which has been under severe price pressure throughout the year has seen sales decline significantly while many other product sectors have year to date sales above 2007 levels," he said.

Market research firm Gartner reported earlier this month that worldwide semiconductor revenue is forecast to drop next year, the first ever back-to-back years of declining sales.

Gartner said worldwide semiconductor revenue is forecast to total 219.2 billion dollars in 2009, a 16.3 percent decline from 2008 revenue.

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