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SMIC to spend US$1 billion on capital expenditure in 2011
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SMIC turned to profit for 2010, the first time in five years as sales reached US$1.556 billion for the full year. The Chinese foundry said it would spend approximately US$1 billion on capital expenditures this year, mainly to meet the high demand for advanced node capacity. SMIC noted that despite expansion plans it couldn’t meet demand for 65nm processing this year.
SMIC noted that its 300mm fab in Beijing would increase capacity from 23,300wspm to 40,000wspm by the end of 2011. Equipment will be purchased for that expansion.
Focus is being put on 65nm capacity with the fab expected to have 27,500wspm allocated to 65nm processing. SMIC noted that 65nm wafer starts would reach 10,000 per month in the next quarter. The foundry expects 65nm capacity to running at 95% utilization for the year ahead.
In the near term, SMIC plans to ramp-up 65nm and 55nm nodes, while its 45nm and 40nm process is expected to ramp by the end of 2011.
CapEx for 2010 was put at US$728 million however the US$1 billion targeted for CapEx in 2011 would be frontend loaded to expand 65nm capacity as quickly as possible.
SMIC achieved a full-year breakeven with net income of $13.1 million in 2010, and a net margin of 1%.
