Intel said last night that sales for the second quarter would be at the lower end of the range of expectations it set in April, as the world's largest semiconductor maker contends with a slowdown in sales of personal computers.

In mid-April, Intel, which employs more than 4,000 at Leixlip, Co Kildare, had forecast an unusually wide range for second-quarter sales of $6.2 billion (€7.3 billion) to $6.8 billion, a decline of as much as 25 per cent from $8.3 billion a year earlier and a decline from first-quarter levels.