Global sales of semiconductors are expected to rise in 2018, although the pace of growth will likely slow down compared with last year, according to a report by industry tracker IHS Markit.

The global market size for dynamic random access memory (DRAM) stood at US$72.2 billion last year a surge of 74 percent from $41.5 billion tallied for 2016.

The market research said for the new year, demand for DRAMs could hit $84.4 billion a gain of 16.9 percent from the previous year.

In addition to the slower pace of growth following last year's market that has been described as a super cycle, the average selling price for computer chips may fall despite rise in shipments in 2018, analysts here said.

In addition to DRAMs, sales of NAND flash memory chips are expected to grow 10 percent on-year to $59.2 billion in 2018, IHS Markit predicted. It said that overproduction will cause prices for such chips to decline in the new year.

In 2017 the market for NAND flash chips reached $53.8 billion, up 46.2 percent from the previous year's $36.8 billion.

Besides IHS Markit, DRAMeXchange and TrendForce Corp expect some adjustments in growth with the push by Chinese manufacturers to grab a greater share of the market to affect overall conditions.

TrendForce, in particular, estimated that Chinese companies are all focused on building up their memory semiconductor operations going forward.

The international tech sector is watching to see how much money market leader Samsung Electronics will inject into semiconductor facilities in the new year. In the first half of 2017, the world's largest manufacturer of computer chips invested $11 billion into its semiconductor production line. This was equivalent to a quarter of all facility investments in the world.