SAN FRANCISCO—Chinese chip foundry Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) reported a narrower loss for the first quarter and said it expects sales to increase sequentially in the second quarter on the order of 20 percent.
SMIC (Shanghai) reported sales first quarter sales of $332.7 million, up 15 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2011 and down 10 percent compared to the first quarter of 2011. The company reported a loss for the quarter of $42.8 million, narrowed compared to a loss of $165.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2011.
SMIC's first quarter sales exceeded consensus analysts' expectations of about $320 million, according to Yahoo Finance. Sales were also in line with revised guidance
issued by SMIC last month, when the company said it had seen seen solid order momentum and an improved outlook from our customers across the board.
Tzu-Yin Chiu, SMIC's CEO, said through a statement that the company expects to grow throughout 2012, primarily due to process ramp-ups for connectivity chips, mobile phones and set-top boxes as well increased demand for some of the company's existing processes. Chiu said SMIC continues to gain from the success of its customers in China.
"Our China revenue continues to grow along with China's semiconductor market," Chiu said. "In the first quarter of 2012, our China revenue grew 9.5 percent quarter over quarter, equivalent to about 32.5 percent of our total revenue in the first quarter of 2012."
SMIC said it expects sales to grow 19 to 21 percent sequentially in the second quarter to between $396 million and $402.6 million. SMIC's second quarter revenue target dramatically exceeded consensus analysts' expectations of about $360 million, according to Yahoo Finance.