A record year for Chinese mainland's largest chipmaker

SMIC, the largest chipmaker on the Chinese mainland, on Friday announced record-high revenue and net profit in 2020 thanks to booming chip demand.

Officials at the STAR-listed company expect the company to grow in the first quarter of 2021, but concede SMIC faces uncertainty because of its addition to the United States Entity List.

The company reported a revenue of US$3.91 billion in 2020, an increase of more than 25 percent over 2019. Net profit increased almost 205 percent to US$716 million.

“At present, capacity in the foundry industry is tight and demand for non-FinFET processes remains strong," said SMIC’s Co-CEOs Zhao Haijun and Liang Mong Song. "Our capacity for non-FinFET will continue to be fully loaded.”

The company expects capital spending of US$4.3 billion in 2021 to expand non-FinFET capacity.

In the first quarter, SMIC projects revenue growth of 7 to 9 percent year on year.

Because the company is on the US Entity List, it is restricted from procuring related American technologies.

SMIC's future growth could be adversely affected by the loss of orders from Huawei, which is also on the US Entity List, according to analysts.