Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp, China’s national chip champion, warned on Friday that any market recovery would be slower than expected due to a cloudy economic outlook and geopolitical tensions.
Zhao Haijun, co-chief executive, said SMIC had anticipated a better recovery after the lifting of Covid-19 curbs in the March quarter, but the situation in the coming year seemed “less optimistic”.
The chipmaker’s second-quarter revenue was $1.56bn, up 7 per cent quarter-on-quarter but down 18 per cent compared to the same period last year, narrowly beating the estimates of analysts polled by Refinitiv.
Net profit was $402.8mn, down 22 per cent year-on-year, ahead of expectation of $84.2mn.