A senior executive of China-based chip-making giant Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) said the company is taking all measures to save itself from US sanctions, and the results are not bad as it hasn’t lost any customers yet.
“So far, none of our clients have resolved to leave SMIC. They are still discussing with us how to expand production and manufacture products in next step. Those things are usual and there are no changes,” S MIC’s Co-CEO Zhao Haijun said on Friday, according to media reports.
The company was forced into a crisis after the US government put it, and a number of other Chinese companies, on a trade blacklist just days before Donald Trump left office.
The company posted a profit of $176.8 million in the fourth quarter, declining 32.5 percent from the previous quarter’s $262.0 million, but surging 11 percent on a yearly basis, according to the company’s fourth-quarter financial report, which attributed the decline to “the decrease in wafer shipment and [a] product mix change.”
But the impact of US sanctions has not yet manifest, said Zhao, expressing a cautious view of the future. According to him, SMIC’s burden has increased as has its production capacity but fewer silicon wafers because of changes in orders from its client Huawei, which is also on the US blacklist.
SMIC would be able to maintain rapid growth this year but for the external influences, and will continue to seek new opportunities, Zhao said.
Independent tech analyst Xiang Ligang thought it’s still highly probable that the US government will relax sanctions on SMIC, such as removing it from the blacklist or grant it a license, as the Biden administration, unlike Trump, will likely take more of US companies and the country’s economic interests into consideration when deciding its China policy.
“I believe the US and China will communicate with each other to find a solution to the deadlock, though the US government might not completely turn friendly to China. Such a stance will be clearer after US high-ranking officials assume office,” he said.
SMIC Photo: VCG
