Asian Tech Press (Feb 11) -- China's largest chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC, 00981.HK) reported record revenue of $5.4 billion for 2021 on Thursday, up 39% year-on-year, a revenue growth rate higher than TSMC.
The Chinese chip maker reported unaudited results for the fourth quarter of 2021 (three months ending December 31, 2021) on Thursday, revealing its rapid growth in 2021 due to global chip shortages.
The results showed that SMIC's revenue exceeded $1.5 billion for the first time in a single quarter, reaching $1.58 billion, up 11.6% quarter-over-quarter and 61.1% year-over-year. And gross profit reached $552.8 million in Q4 2021, up 212.7% from $176.8 million in the same quarter last year.
It also noted that the chipmaker's revenue for 2021 also hit an all-time high of $5,443.1 million, placing it in fourth place among the global chip foundries and the fastest growing one among the world's top four chipmakers with a 39% revenue growth rate.
The statistics show that TSMC, GlobalFoundries and UMC's 2021 revenue growth rates are 24.9%, 36% and 20.5% respectively.
Regarding the reasons for the Q4 earnings growth, SMIC explained that the increase in sales revenue was mainly due to the combined effect of higher wafer sales, higher average selling prices and changes in product mix, as well as higher earnings from investments in affiliates and financial assets.
SMIC also expects revenue to grow 15-17% QoQ in the first quarter of 2022, gross margin to further improve to 36%-38%, and annual revenue growth is expected to be better than the foundry industry average in 2022.
In the announcement, SMIC said that capital expenditures are expected to be approximately $5 billion in 2022.
During the company's fourth-quarter earnings call on Friday, SMIC co-CEO Haijun Zhao said that ground was broken for a 12-inch wafer foundry in Shanghai in early 2022, and the two fab projects in Beijing and Shenzhen are steadily progressing, with production expected to start at the end of 2022.
Zhao also said that SMIC has increased its monthly production capacity by 100,000 pieces of about eight-inch wafers last year, and that the planned capacity increase in 2022 will be more than that in 2021. And the three new projects, when in full production, will multiply the company's total manufacturing capacity.
