Intel, the world's biggest chipmaker, has said its factories are busy and it expects to grow sales by 10 per cent or more in 2005, on the first day of its annual roadshow on Wall Street yesterday.

The firm, which is currently considering whether to set up a new chip plant in Leixlip, is scheduled to make a host of presentations on its business to analysts over the next week. On the first day of the roadshow, it sounded an upbeat note for 2005.

"Our factories are relatively fully loaded right now," said chief executive Craig Barrett, before the company's New York analysts' meeting. "We're not seeing any inventory build-up with our main customers."

Intel, which employs more than 3,600 staff in the Republic, also announced a tie-up with the US telecoms firm Sprint. This concerns a long-range wireless technology, WiMax, that Intel has pushed as a future driver of notebook computer sales.

The companies will jointly conduct trials of "ubiquitous" wireless broadband internet via WiMax, the companies said in a statement.

The comments come as investors scrutinise the PC industry, Intel's core market, for signs of weakness. Just last month, Dell chief executive Kevin Rollins said the PC industry's growth was slower than expected in the first quarter.

Intel, which sells more than 80 per cent of all personal computer microprocessors, posted a stronger-than-expected first-quarter profit and has grown faster than the PC industry in recent years by expanding beyond those PC core chips.

Presentation materials made available at the company's spring analysts' meeting said the company would call for "a third straight year of double-digit growth" during a presentation by Intel president Paul Otellini.

Executives have long pointed to Intel's Centrino brand of notebook computer chips as a model for future product development.