Chipmaker SMIC targets 20% annual revenue growth

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, China's biggest chipmaker, is targeting 20 percent annual revenue growth, and has pledged to continue diversifying its business.

Zhang Xin, the vice-president of SMIC (Beijing), highlighted monitoring equipment, wearable devices and intelligent home systems as targets of expansion, as strong quarterly revenues were unveiled on Friday which showed the company is still enjoying robust growth, despite a slowing semiconductor market.

China's smartphone market has effectively reached saturation point, but "smartphone chips are just one part of our businesses", Zhang insisted.

"We are tapping into more fields, which include set-top boxes, communications equipment, monitoring and wearable devices, even drones."

Shanghai-headquartered SMIC has fabrication sites throughout the country.

Its major customers include US telecommunications firm Qualcomm Inc and HiSilicon Technologies Co Ltd, a chipmaking subsidiary of Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies.

Zhang said semiconductor integrated circuits are expected to remain widely used. For instance, the appearance of fingerprint recognition, gives it another strong opportunity to expand.

"With the growth of such application scenarios, the demand for semiconductors remains huge."

SMIC has also established an industry alliance with various downstream partners, such as equipment and materials providers, to accelerate the spread of the whole industrial chain.

His comments came as the company issued first-quarter earnings which showed revenue hit $634.3 million during the period, a 24.4 percent rise, compared with $509.8 million a year ago. Net profit for the first three months was $61.4 million ($55.5 million), up 11 percent.

Chiu Tzu-yin, its CEO and executive director, said: "Orders from customers continue to be robust and are being driven by our diversified product range and customer exposure, which continue to keep our utilization high."

Chiu said its customers are expanding their own market shares, and as a result SMIC is now targeting 20 percent annual revenue growth.

Most of the world's top chip manufactures, including Intel Corp, Samsung Electronics and United Microelectronics Corp have established major factories in the Chinese mainland, forcing domestic businesses such as SMIC to diversify amid stiffer competition.

Wu Lianfeng, vice-president and chief analyst at research firm International Data Corp China, said faced with slower growth in smartphone sales, SMIC is right to seek new growth points in emerging areas which present huge development potential.