Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (981) Earnings Call Transcript

[Interpreted] Welcome to Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation's Second Quarter 2026 Webcast Conference Call. Today's call will be simultaneously streamed through the Internet and telephone. [Operator Instructions] Without further ado, I would like to introduce Ms. Guo Guangli, Senior Vice President and Board Secretary, to host the webcast.

[Interpreted] Greetings. Welcome to SMIC's Second Quarter 2026 Webcast Conference Call. Attending today's call are Dr. Zhao Haijun, Co-Chief Executive Officer; Dr. Wu Junfeng, Senior Vice President and person in charge of Finance. Let me remind you that today's presentation contains forward-looking statements that do not guarantee future performance but represent the company's expectations and are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties. Please refer to the forward-looking statements in our earnings announcement. Please note that today's earnings statement is presented in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, IFRS, and currency figures are in U.S. dollars, unless otherwise stated. I will now hand the call to Dr. Wu Junfeng to introduce the company's financial status.

[Interpreted] First, I will report our unaudited results for the second quarter and the first half of 2026, followed by our guidance for the third quarter. The second quarter results were as follows. Revenue was $3,006 million, up 20% sequentially. Gross margin was 25.3%, up 5.2 percentage points sequentially. Profit from operations was $534 million. EBITDA was $2,109 million. EBITDA margin was 70.2%. Profit attributable to the company was $479 million. Moving to the balance sheet. At the end of the second quarter, the company had total assets of $57.2 billion, of which total cash on hand was $13.9 billion. Total liabilities were $19.3 billion, of which total debt was $14 billion. Total equity was $37.9 billion. Debt-to-equity ratio was 37% and net debt-to-equity ratio was 0.4%. In terms of cash flow, in the second quarter, net cash generated from operating activities was $2,522 million Net cash used in investing activities was $2,271 million. Net cash generated from financing activities was $607 million. The company's unaudited results for the first half of 2026 were as follows: Revenue was $5,511 million, up 23.7% year-over-year. Gross margin was 22.9%, up 1.5 percentage points year-over-year. Profit from operations was $782 million. EBITDA was $3,545 million. EBITDA margin was 64.3%. Profit attributable to the company was $677 million. For the third quarter 2026, our guidance is as follows: revenue is expected to increase by 2% to 4% sequentially, and gross margin is expected to be in the range of 26% to 28%. This concludes the financial status. Thank you.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Dr. Wu. Next, I will hand the call to Dr. Zhao Haijun to comment on operations.

[Interpreted] Hello, everyone. Thank you for attending SMIC's Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. In the second quarter, the company's business achieved growth in both wafer shipment and price. Quarterly revenue surpassed $3 billion, with all key operating metrics recording substantial increases year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter. Specifically, the company overall achieved a total revenue of $3,006 million, a sequential increase of 20%. Among that, the shipment increased by 14.4%, while the blended ASP increased by 5.7%. The increase in shipment was mainly driven by surging demand for peripheral chips grown by AI as well as customer shipment pull in. The company newly added 8,000 12-inch equivalent monthly capacity and utilization rate increased by 0.6 percentage points sequentially to 93.7%. In the second quarter, in terms of company's revenue by region, China, America and Eurasia accounted for 90%, 8% and 2%, respectively. All regions recorded revenue increases in absolute dollar terms. China recorded the most substantial growth at 22%, mainly driven by robust demand for AI peripheral chips, the backflow of overseas orders and continued strengthening of localized manufacturing. By size, wafer revenue from 12-inch and 8-inch accounted for 78% and 22%, respectively. The wafer revenue amount from 12-inch increased by 24% sequentially and wafer revenue amount from 8-inch increased by 11% sequentially. By application, wafer revenue from smartphone, computer and tablets, consumer electronics, connectivity and IoT, industrial and automotive accounted for 17%, 16%, 44%, 7% and 17%, respectively. All absolute values rose quarter-over-quarter. The company allocated more capacity to segments facing tight demand, resulting in quarter-over-quarter absolute value revenue growth of approximately 40% for AI peripheral chips, computer and tablets as well as industrial and automotive. For other applications, despite an overall downturn in end device, customers pull in partially offset the impact, driving absolute value revenue growth of 8% and 16% and 13% for smartphone, computer -- consumer electronics and connectivity and IoT, respectively. In the second quarter, the company's gross margin increased by 5.2 percentage points to 25.3%, mainly due to an increase in blended ASP and better-than-expected utilization rate which offset the drag on gross margin from increased depreciation. Besides, EBITDA margin increased by nearly 13 percentage points sequentially to 70%. According to the unaudited results for the first and second quarters, the company's revenue in the first half of 2026 surpassed $5.5 billion, up 23.7% comparing to the same period last year. The gross margin was 22.9%, up 1.5 percentage points comparing to the same period last year. The company's total capital expenditures for the first half of the year were $3.4 billion. In the third quarter, the company's shipment is expected to continue to grow, and the price is expected to remain resilient. The quarterly revenue is guided to increase 2% to 4% sequentially, and the gross margin is guided to rise sequentially to be in the range of 26% to 28% after offsetting incremental depreciation in the third quarter and peak summer season power costs. Utilization rate, inclusive of newly added capacity, is expected to remain at a high level of around 95%, which effectively dilutes unit fixed costs. Looking ahead to the second half of this year, the industrial momentum and spillover effects generated by AI will persist driving broad-based demand for integrated circuit manufacturing. The company will flexibly allocate existing capacity and accelerate the qualification of newly added capacity to help ease supply constraints across the industrial chain. At the same time, we also observed that pressure on upward supply chain cost has been passed through to the manufacturing segment. The company will proactively address these challenges and mitigate headwinds to minimize the overall impact. Overall, the company maintains an optimistic outlook on industry trends and the company's development. Finally, we sincerely thank all customers suppliers, investors and community for your understanding and strong support. Thank you all.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Dr. Zhao. Next is our Q&A session. Questions will be answered by Dr. Zhao and Dr. Wu. Chinese questions will be answered in Chinese. English questions will be answered in English. Please limit your questions to 2 per person. I would now like to open up the call for Q&A. Operator, please assist.

[Interpreted] [Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Leping Huang of Huatai Securities.

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[Interpreted] Your next question comes from Ziyuan Wang of CITIC Securities.

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[Interpreted] Your next question comes from Yikang Zhang of CICC.

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