SMIC reports 123.4% jump in third-quarter profit

By Che Pan and Eduardo Baptista

BEIJING, Nov 12 (Reuters) – China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp  reported a 123.4% jump in third-quarter profit on Thursday, beating analyst estimates.

Here are some key financial results for the third quarter: 

• SMIC’s net profit reached $428.4 million, above the $418.4 million expected, according to LSEG data. Revenue rose 33.9% to $3.19 billion, beating forecasts of $3.09 billion.

• SMIC’s capital spending for the third quarter reached $1.09 billion, compared with $1.84 billion in the second quarter.

• SMIC Q2 gross profit margin reached 29.9%, compared with 25.3% in the second quarter

• SMIC’s monthly production capacity increased 1.8% quarter-to-quarter to 1.1 million standard eight-inch equivalent wafers, with utilisation rates – measuring a foundry’s production intensity – reaching 97.3%, up 3.6 percentage points from the second quarter.

• China remained SMIC’s biggest market, accounting for 90.8% of its revenue in the third quarter, up slightly from the second quarter, while the US contributed 7.8%, down slightly from 8.2%.

• SMIC shipped 3.03 million equivalent wafers in the September quarter, up 5.7% from the previous quarter.

• The company is pursuing capacity expansion driven by customer demand

(Reporting by Che Pan and Eduardo Baptista and Louise Heavens)