Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC,
Net income was US$2.2 million, or 0.6 cents per American depositary share, in the second quarter, compared with a loss of US$40.4 million, or 11.1 cents, a year earlier, the Shanghai-based chipmaker said yesterday in a statement on its Web site. Sales gained 29.3 percent to US$361.4 million.
"We want to be conservative," about prospects for third-quarter profit, chief executive officer Richard Chang (
He said the forecast is still for a "very profitable" third quarter.
SMIC, whose customers include Infineon Technologies AG, expects sales this quarter to remain flat or increase up to 2 percent from the second quarter.
The company narrowed its operating loss to US$6.9 million in the second quarter from US$32.1 million a year earlier. Loss from operations in the first quarter was US$6 million.
The chipmaker is sticking to its planned US$1.1 billion capital spending forecast for this year, Chang said. Capital expenditure in the second quarter rose to US$317.3 million from US$255 million in the previous three-month period.
The company said it used 93.5 percent of its factory capacity in the second quarter, compared with 87 percent a year earlier and 95 percent in the first quarter. Usage in the current quarter will likely be between 90 percent and 91 percent, Chang said.
Second-quarter gross margin, the percentage of sales left after deducting production costs, was 13.6 percent, compared with 2.3 percent a year earlier and 12.4 percent in the first quarter. Gross margin this quarter will be between 8 percent and 12 percent, it said.
Semiconductor Manufacturing's shipments of 8-inch wafers, which make up the bulk of its production, rose 17.5 percent in the second quarter to 388,498 units, from 330,499 a year earlier. In the first quarter, the chipmaker shipped 388,010 units.
The average selling price in the second quarter rose 10 percent from a year earlier, it said.
The company joins Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC,
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