SMIC details profitable 2010

LONDON – Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. made a net income of $14.0 million on sales revenue of $1,554.8 million in the 2010 calendar year. The company announced that sales were up 45.3 percent from $1,070.4 million in 2009 and the company turned round to a net profit from a loss of $962.5 million in 2009.

The results are an audited update to the fourth quarter financial results announcement made on Feb. 17.

The sales increase was primarily due to an increase in overall wafer shipment. For the full year 2010, the overall wafer shipments were 1,985,974 units of 8-inch equivalent wafers, up 44.3 percent year-on-year. The average selling price of the wafers the company shipped increased by 0.6 percent from $778 per wafer to $783.

Geographically, North American customers, which contributed 55 percent of the overall revenue, remained as the largest customer base for SMIC in 2010, displaying a strong growth in the advanced nodes. In other regions, Mainland China customers contributed 28 percent of the total revenue in 2010, followed by Taiwan customers at 11 percent.

Communication applications, which contributed 49 percent of our overall revenue, continued to be our strongest sector. Similarly, contribution from consumer applications also grew from 38 percent of revenue in 2009 to 40 percent in 2010. North American customers tended to operate in the communications sector while Chinese customers tended to be seeking consumer ICs.

In terms of revenue breakdown by technology node, revenue contribution from business at the 0.13-micron node and below grew to 52 percent as compared to 48 percent in 2009, while revenue from 65-nm technology revenue contributed 5 percent of wafer revenue in 2010.

SMIC's research and development expenses in 2010 were $174.9 million, which represented 11.2 percent of sales.