SMIC Announces 2010 Annual Results

SHANGHAI, March 31, 2011 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation ("SMIC"; NYSE: SMI; SEHK: 0981.HK), China's largest and most advanced semiconductor foundry, is pleased to announce the audited consolidated results of the Company and its subsidiaries (the "Group") for the year ended December 31, 2010.

Highlights include:

Sales increased by 45.3% from US$1,070.4 million for 2009 to US$1,554.8 million for 2010, primarily due to an increase in overall wafer shipment. For the full year 2010, the overall wafer shipments were 1,985,974 units of 8-inch equivalent wafers, up 44.3% year-on-year.

The average selling price of the wafers the Company shipped increased by 0.6% from US$778 per wafer to US$783. Excluding DRAM revenue, the percentage of wafer revenues that used 0.13 micron and below process technology increased from 47.5% to 54.5% between these two periods.

The Company recorded a net income of US$14.0 million in 2010 compared to a net loss of US$962.5 million in 2009.

Business Review

SMIC, under the direction of new senior management, continued to expand its product portfolio and customer base despite the challenging business environment in 2010. Still, the Company continued to benefit from its strategic position in China — the largest and fastest growing integrated circuits market, and saw a steady growth in the region, in particular, through the implementation of the stimulus package that stirred strong domestic demand. As our business began to grow and improve in 2010, with our utilization rate rebounding to 96.8% in the fourth quarter, we also saw a significant growth in the revenue generated from the more advanced technology nodes of 0.13-micron and below.

Financial Overview

During 2010, we generated US$694.6 million in cash from operations. Capital expenditures in 2010 totaled $728 million, which was mainly allocated to 65-nanometer, 45-nanometer and 32-nanometer research and development and 12-inch advanced technology expansion and development in our Beijing Fab. Looking ahead, we will continue to increase capital expenditures, improve efficiency, foster innovation, and enhance our financial position as we continue for sustained profitability.

Customers and Markets

SMIC serves a global customer base, comprised of leading IDMs, fabless semiconductor companies, and system companies. Leveraging on our strategic position in China, we have seen our Greater China business grow strongly during the year, contributing 39% to the overall revenue for 2010, an increase from 35% in 2009.

Geographically, North American customers, which contributed 55% of the overall revenue, remained as the largest customer base for SMIC in 2010, displaying a strong growth in the advanced nodes. In other regions, Mainland China customers contributed 28% of the total revenue in 2010, followed by Taiwan customers at 11%.

Communication applications, which contributed 49% of our overall revenue, continued to be our strongest sector. Similarly, contribution from consumer applications also grew from 38% of revenue in 2009 to 40% in 2010. Our North American customers, which include leading IDM and fabless IC companies, showed strong demand in communications products, mainly in mobile, networking and WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) applications. Our Chinese customers, on the other hand, showed strong demand for both consumer and communications products, including digital television (DTV), set-top box (STB), mobile, portable media player (PMP), and PDA applications.

In terms of revenue breakdown by technology node, revenue contribution from business at the 0.13-micron node and below business has grown to 52% in 2010 as compared to 48% in 2009, while revenue from 65nm technology revenue contributed 5% of wafer revenue in 2010. In addition, our 45-nanometer low-power technology development is on schedule, while we have extended our technology offering down to 40nm, plus an extension to include 55-nanometer.

In 2010, we engaged 41 new customers, and the majority of them were Chinese fabless companies, where we experienced the fastest growth. Notably, our China business has been growing steadily not only from a revenue perspective, but also based on the number of new designs using more advanced technology nodes — some pursuing 65-nanometer. This trend also signifies that China is quickly catching up to the rest of the world in terms of its innovation and design capabilities. Promising new players with innovative designs and applications continue to emerge among the Chinese fabless companies, and we are producing a broad range of applications for them, including CMOS image sensor (CIS), Mobile CMMB, HDTV, RFID, wireless and other products. To this end, SMIC remains committed to collaborating with our existing and new customers in China, and further solidifying our position as the leading foundry in the market. At the same time, we will also continue to expand our presence in the global arena.

Research and Development

In 2010, our research and development expenses were $174.9 million, which represented 11.2% of our sales.

The research and development efforts were focused primarily on our logic platform and system-on-chip (SOC) applications. SMIC in 2010 has achieved many significant milestones. Early on in the year, the Company shipped 100,000 8-inch wafers to Galaxycore using CMOS image sensor (CIS) process technology. In May, Synopsys announced the immediate availability of silicon-proven and USB logo-certified DesignWare USB 2.0 nanoPhy intellectual property for 65-nanometer (nm) low-leakage (LL) process technology. In addition, the Company has longstanding partnership with leading fabless companies to include 65nm LL and 40nm LL process technologies. For system-on-chip (SOC) front, ARM and SMIC agreed to collaborate on the development of ARM leading physical IP library platform for 65nm LL and 40nm LL technology process nodes. Our 65nm LL technology successfully moves to volume production, an accumulative wafer shipped has achieved over 10,000 pieces since mass production began in Q3 2009, mostly implemented at our 300mm facility in Beijing.

We employ approximately over 451 research and development engineers, with experience in the semiconductor industry and with advanced degrees from leading universities around the world and in China.

Outlook for 2011

Our overall outlook for 2011 is positive as we see a growing foundry market supporting an overall strengthening of our Company's foundation.

The Company broke even on both net and operating income levels in 2010, and we target sustainable profitability going forward. Our product mix continues to improve as our 65-nanometer continues to ramp up, and as our customers migrate to more advanced technology nodes that have higher ASP. Our capital expenditure spending in 2011 is being focused on products with higher ASP where our customer demand is, namely in 12-inch production.

The overall foundry market is better, and furthermore the China market looks even stronger. We continue to work hard and to seize opportunities to improve our business in this year of growth.

For detailed financials overview, please refer to www.smics.com.

About SMIC

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation ("SMIC"; NYSE: SMI; SEHK: 981) is one of the leading semiconductor foundries in the world and the largest and most advanced foundry in Mainland China, providing integrated circuit (IC) foundry and technology services at 0.35-micron to 45/40-nanometer. Headquartered in Shanghai, China, SMIC has a 300mm wafer fabrication facility (fab) and three 200mm wafer fabs in its Shanghai mega-fab, two 300mm wafer fabs in its Beijing mega-fab, a 200mm wafer fab in Tianjin, and a 200mm fab under construction in Shenzhen. SMIC also has customer service and marketing offices in the U.S., Europe, and Japan, and a representative office in Hong Kong. In addition, SMIC manages and operates a 300mm wafer fab in Wuhan owned by Wuhan Xinxin Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation.

For more information, please visit www.smics.com

Safe Harbor Statements (Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995)

This press release contains, in addition to historical information, "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on SMIC's current assumptions, expectations and projections about future events. SMIC uses words like "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "estimate," "expect," "project" and similar expressions to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. These forward-looking statements involve significant risks, both known and unknown, uncertainties and other factors that may cause SMIC's actual performance, financial condition or results of operations to be materially different from those suggested by the forward-looking statements, including among others risks associated with the press release, the current global financial crisis, orders or judgments from pending litigation and financial stability in end markets.

Investors should consider the information contained in SMIC's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including its Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC on June 29, 2010, especially in the "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" sections, and such other documents that SMIC may file with the SEC or SEHK from time to time, including on Form 6-K. Other unknown or unpredictable factors also could have material adverse effects on SMIC's future results, performance or achievements. In light of these risks, uncertainties, assumptions and factors, the forward-looking events discussed in this press release may not occur. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date stated, or if no date is stated, as of the date of this press release. Except as may be required by law, SMIC undertakes no obligation and does not intend to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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