NEW YORK -- Semiconductor sales were lower than forecasts for the sixth straight month in November, a top industry analyst reported.

Based on the the recently published WSTS semiconductor billings report for November, Mike Cowan forecasts the 90-day average billings for December will be $30.3 billion. That would be good for a record December, but would bring the 2015 sales to $338.2 billion, a nominal 0.71% gain, according to Cowan's model. Still, the outlook is better than the WSTS/SIA forecast of 0.16%.

Global sales in December 2014 reached $29.1 billion, the strongest December ever.

The analyst's model further suggests overall 2016 sales would rise 4.9% to $354.9 billion. That beats the WSTS/SIA forecast of 1.4% growth for 2016.