China's SMIC says Trump tariffs did not cause expected 'hard landing'
BEIJING (Reuters) -China's top foundry SMIC's co-CEO said on Friday that U.S. tariff policy had not resulted in the "hard landing" that the company was initially worried about and that strong domestic demand will keep its production capacity tight until October.
Zhao Haijun, co-CEO of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), told a post-earnings call that the company is not consulting with customers regarding U.S. President Donald Trump's 100% tariff plan on chip imports but expects the impact could be smaller due to contingency plans that had been made after tariffs were announced in April.
China raised additional duties on U.S. goods to 125% in April after Trump effectively raised tariffs on Chinese goods to 145%. Trump said on Wednesday the United States will impose a tariff of about 100% on imports of semiconductors, although that will not apply to companies that are manufacturing in the U.S. or have committed to do so.
SMIC was blacklisted by the U.S. commerce department in 2020. China is the dominant market for SMIC, accounting for 84% of its revenue in the second quarter, unchanged from the first quarter, while the U.S. contributed 12.9%, slightly up from 12.6%.
SMIC's second-quarter revenue rose 16.2% year-on-year to $2.2 billion. Its profit attributable to owners of SMIC declined 19.5% to $132.5 million, missing analysts' estimates of $183.35 million, according to LSEG data.
SMIC's Hong Kong-traded shares were down more than 5% on Friday.
Zhao said the previous rounds of tariffs resulted in less than 10% of cost increases at its overseas customers.
"After these past few months, everyone has either stocked up enough inventory for this year and next year, or found other suppliers," Zhao said, "So I think the impact will become even smaller."
Zhao said SMIC's production capacity remains insufficient and would remain tight until October due to robust demand from domestic substitution.
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