SMIC Photo: VCG

 
Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the uncertainty around the US Entity List, the Chinese chip maker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), still witnessed a strong financial growth in 2020 with record numbers, according to the company’s 2020 financial report published on Wednesday.

The annual report indicates that SMIC’s revenue saw a 24.8 percent increase year-over-year in 2020, reaching a total of 27.47 billion yuan ($4.19 billion). Net profit registered 4.33 billion yuan with a 141.5 percent increase year-over-year.

The report also showed that income for sales of chips for smartphones accounted for 44.4 percent of the total income for the business in 2020 with a jump in revenue of 21.7 percent from the year before.

Revenue for sales of chips for smart home appliances accounted for 17.1 percent of total revenue last year representing a 22.3 percent growth year-over-year.

According to the company, the COVID-19 pandemic in the past year also brought some opportunities to industries as the stay-at-home economy strengthened demand for the Internet of Everything and brought rare market opportunities to the semiconductor industry.

In a letter to shareholders, the company’s Chairman of the Board and Executive Director, Zhou Zixuan, said that opportunities and challenges coexist in 2021. 

On one hand, the rise of new formats, models and applications, such as AI and Internet of Things, drives demand for chips. Worldwide production capacity remains tight at the moment and customer demand is growing but capacity expansion cannot keep up. 

On the other hand, Zhou said, the company still faces the impact of uncertainty around the US Entity List and longer delivery times for equipment procurement. This will affect the capacity to ramp up production and might not go as expected.

Global Times