SMIC reports 2006 first quarter results
Shanghai -- April 28, 2006 -- Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (NYSE: SMI; SEHK: 981) ("SMIC" or the "Company"), one of the leading semiconductor foundries in the world, today announced its consolidated results of operations for the three months ended March 31, 2006. Sales increased 5.4% in the first quarter of 2006 to $351.1 million from $333.1 million in the prior quarter. The Company reported an increase in capacity to 157,330 8-inch equivalent wafers per month and a utilization rate of 95% in the first quarter of 2006. Operating loss decreased to $6.0 million in the first quarter of 2006 compared to an operating loss of $8.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2005. Net loss decreased to $8.7 million in the first quarter of 2006 compared to a net loss of $15.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2005.
"I am pleased to announce that our performance during the first quarter exceeded our expectations as quarterly revenues continued to increase to $351 million during the first quarter helping to narrow our operating loss to $6 million in the first quarter," said Dr. Richard Chang.
"Our revenues from 0.13 micron and below technologies increased to 47% of total revenues in the first quarter. Revenues generated from 0.15 micron and 0.13 micron and below logic products as a percentage of our logic revenues significantly increased to 14.5% and 13.3% in the first quarter from 8.6% and 10.9% in the fourth quarter. We expect that these trends will continue as we have received a significant increase in 0.13 micron full flow orders and as we commence commercial production for our first 90 nanometer product.
The NAND flash development team has successfully taped out a 2-gigabit NAND flash product during the first quarter. The development remains on schedule to deliver the first engineering samples in June and we target commercial production of this product in the fourth quarter of 2006.
Our Chengdu project began commercial production during the first quarter allowing SMIC to now offer in-house turn-key IC manufacturing for our customers. In addition, our solar power module project is moving along nicely and continues to improve its energy conversion rate. This project is on schedule for starting commercial production in the second quarter of this year.
We believe that the execution of our business plans will lead to an increase in shareholder value."
SMIC Q1 earnings release
About SMIC
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation ("SMIC", NYSE: SMI and HKSE: 0.981.HK), headquartered in Shanghai, China, is an international company and one of the leading semiconductor foundries in the world, providing integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing at 0.35um to 90nm and finer line technologies to customers worldwide. Established in 2000, SMIC has four 8-inch wafer fabrication facilities in volume production in Shanghai and Tianjin. In the first quarter of 2005, SMIC commenced commercial production at its 12-inch wafer fabrication facility in Beijing, the first 12-inch fab in China. SMIC also maintains customer service and marketing offices in the U.S., Europe, and Japan, and a representative office in Hong Kong. SMIC's pool of talents includes over 2,500 semiconductor industry experts and technical staff. SMIC has achieved ISO9001, ISO/TS16949, OHSAS18001, TL9000, BS7799 and ISO14001 certifications. For additional information, please visit http://www.smics.com.
