SMIC revenue surges 42% to $1.9 bn in April-June quarter

Chip maker Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC) said its revenue surged 42 percent to $1.9 billion for the April-June quarter.
SMIC at a trade event
SMIC’s net profit slid by a quarter to $514.3 million as the company poured funds into capacity expansion.

A slowdown in demand for smartphones in particular has driven down prices for certain chips, co-CEO Zhao Haijun told investors on an earnings call.

His remarks echo comments from other chip companies which have warned that a weakening global economy and a re-balancing of supply and demand might soon lead to a glut for some types of semiconductors.

Memory chip maker Micron Technology has cut its current-quarter revenue forecast citing waning demand for PCs and smartphones, while GPU chip maker Nvidia has warned of weak demand for its gaming business.

Last year, SMIC committed to opening new fabs in Shanghai, Beijing, and Shenzhen at the height of the global chip shortage. The new projects are progressing as planned, Zhao said.

SMIC spent $2.5 billion in the first half of the year, and increased its 8-inch wafer production capacity by 53,000 wafers per month.

SMIC also said Zhao would step down as an executive board member to focus on his co-CEO duties.

Former Arm executive William Tudor Brown resigned as independent non-executive director of the board, replaced by Wu Hanming, an industry veteran who worked at Intel before returning to China.

SMIC said its capital expenditures (Capex) were $1,672.3 million in 2Q22, compared to $869.0 million in 1Q22.  The planned capital expenditures for 2022 is approximately $5 billion for the expansion of the existing fabs and rolling out of three new projects.

SMIC spent $2.5 billion on capital expenditures in the first half of the year and increased its 8-inch equivalent capacity by 53 thousand wafers per month.

SMIC said China accounted for 69.4 percent of its total revenue, while North America 18.9 percent and Europe and Asia 11.7 percent.

SMIC generated 25.4 percent of the total revenue from smartphone business, 16.2 percent from Smart Home and 23.8 percent from Consumer Electronics business.