China's leading contract chipmaker SMIC says it will be cautious about expanding advanced process capacity in 2021, according to its CEO Zhao Haijun on the 2020 fourth-quarter conference call.
While SMIC has met its target of setting up a capacity of 15,000 chips by the end of 2020, it is still far from the economic scale. For further expansion, an export license will be required, Zhao said.
The company will ensure production continuity and continue to apply for an export license with suppliers, Zhao said.
The company will also consider enhancing the components developed for the first and second-generation FINFET multiplex platform and expanding the reliability as well as the competitiveness of the platform.
SMIC reported sales of $981.1 million and gross profit of $176.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2020, with a gross margin of 18.0%.
The company expects to spend $4.3 billion in capital expenditures this year, with the majority of that going to expansions of existing processes and a small portion to advanced processes, civil construction of new joint venture projects in Beijing, and other entities.
In terms of capacity building, SMIC plans to expand its existing 12-inch production line by 10,000 chips and its existing 8-inch production line by no less than 45,000 chips this year.
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