Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC), China's most advanced and largest pure-play foundry, has set its capex target this year at US$4.3 billion in which the majority will be spent on its non-FinFET capacity expansion.
"Our capacity for non-FinFET will continue to be fully loaded," said SMIC's management led by co-CEOs Haijun Zhao and Liang Mong Song. "In terms of capacity expansion, we increase monthly non-FinFET capacity by 10,000 for 12-inch, and not less than 45,000 for 8-inch this year."
"Given the impact of being added to the Entity List," SMIC's management continued, "we will consider strengthening the development and deployment of our first and second generation FinFET multi-platforms and expand the reliability and competitiveness of our platforms."
SMIC also expects to post revenue growth of 7-9% sequentially in the first quarter of 2021, when gross margin will range from 17% to 19%. SMIC also provided its sales guidance for the year, with revenue forecast to register a 4-9% increase growth, and gross margin in the mid-teens range.
"Looking to 2021, as SMIC was placed on the US Entity List, the company is restricted from procuring related US items or technologies; so, there are risks and uncertainties to our annual forecasts," said Gao Yonggang, CFO for the China-based foundry. "The forecast we give today assumes that operational continuity is not significantly adversely affected. Export license application processes must be followed, they take time and will face uncertainty."
SMIC reported revenue of US$981.1 million for the fourth quarter of 2020, down 9.4% on quarter but up 16.9% on year. Gross margin came to 18%, compared with 24.2% in the prior quarter and 23.8% a year earlier.
SMIC disclosed profits for the fourth quarter attributable to the company of US$257 million - a record high - with US$15 billion in cash on hand.
SMIC posted revenue of US$3.91 billion for 2020, with a 23.6% gross margin. Profits attributable to the company arrived at US$716 million, also a record high.
