SMIC Reports 2006 Second Quarter Results
Shanghai, China -- July 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 June 30, 2006. Sales increased 2.9% in the second quarter of 2006 to $361.4 million from $351.1 million in the prior quarter. The Company reported an increase in capacity to 167,251 8-inch equivalent wafers per month and a utilization rate of 93.5% in the second quarter of 2006. Gross margins were 13.6% in the second quarter of 2006 compared to 12.4% in the first quarter of 2006. Net income was $2.2 million in the second quarter of 2006, compared to a net loss of $8.7 million in the first quarter of 2006. The Company recognized an income tax benefit of $18.9 million in the second quarter as a result of strategic tax planning based on US GAAP FAS 109 (Accounting for Income Taxes).
"We continue to improve on our manufacturing core competency as we saw an increase in our revenues from 0.13 micron and below technologies contributing 47.5% of total revenues in the second quarter," said Dr. Richard Chang, Chief Executive Officer of SMIC. "Revenues generated from 0.13 micron logic products as a percentage of our logic revenues significantly increased to 22.5% from 13.3% in the first quarter. We expect this trend to continue as more of our customers migrate to our 0.13 micron and 90 nanometer logic processes.
In the second quarter, we successfully qualified and commenced commercial production of our first 90nm logic product at our 300mm facility in Beijing. Also, we have successfully qualified Elpida's 512M-bit DDR2 SDRAM using a 90nm manufacturing process also at our 300mm facility in Beijing.
We have delivered the first engineering samples and are pleased to announce that Saifun's 90nm NROM Flash is functional. This marks an important achievement towards commencing production of this product in the fourth quarter of 2006.
We are cautiously optimistic on our outlook for the second half of 2006 as some customers have pushed out wafer orders due to an ongoing inventory correction. However, the postponement of these orders is offset by the growing strength in the China market as we see the emergence of Mainland China customers and overseas customers partnering with SMIC to help gain market share in China. We are pleased with the development of our Mainland China customers and expect that the percentage of revenues from these customers will continue to increase. In addition, we are observing a promising trend of global semiconductor companies choosing to work with SMIC to take advantage of our proximity to their China end-market customer.
As we continue to execute on our business plans, we are carefully laying down a solid foundation for future growth and development in the foundry industry and will expand our business in a financially disciplined manner."
SMIC Q2 earnings release
About SMIC
SMIC (NYSE: SMI; SEHK: 981) is one of the leading semiconductor foundries in the world and the largest and most advanced foundry in Mainland China, providing integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing service at 0.35mm to 90nm and finer line technologies. Headquartered in Shanghai, China, SMIC operates three 200mm fabs in Shanghai and one in Tianjin, and one 300mm fab in Beijing, the first of its kind in Mainland China. SMIC has customer service and marketing offices in the U.S., Italy, and Japan as well as a representative office in Hong Kong. For additional information, please visit http://www.smics.com.
