SMIC announced unaudited results for the second quarter of 2024. Sales revenue and gross margin were better than the guidelines. 24Q2 achieved revenue of $1.9 billion, up 9% month-on-month and 22% year-on-year, mainly due to increased wafer sales. 24Q2 The company's gross margin was 13.9%, up 0.2 percentage points from month to month; operating profit was 0.087 billion US dollars, up 3522% month on month; profit attributable to the owners of the company was 0.165 billion US dollars, up 129% month on month; profit before interest, tax depreciation and amortization was 1.056 billion US dollars, and profit margin before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization was 55.5%. In the third quarter, the company's revenue guidance was a month-on-month increase of 13% to 15%, and gross margin in the range of 18% to 20%.
Production capacity and capacity utilization increased simultaneously. The company's 8-inch utilization rate has picked up, and the 12-inch production capacity has been at close to full capacity for the past few months. In the first half of this year, the company added a certain amount of effective production capacity. In terms of the equivalent of 8-inch wafers, SMIC's monthly production capacity increased from 0.815 million tablets in 24Q1 to 0.837 million chips in 24Q2. The new production capacity was quickly put into production, and the company's comprehensive capacity utilization rate increased 4 percentage points month-on-month, from 80.8% in 24Q1 to 85.2% in 24Q2. The company's overall production capacity is expected to increase by about 0.06 million pieces at the end of this year compared to the end of last year, with a 12-inch production capacity of about 0.06 million pieces.
Growth in downstream demand for mobile phones and consumer electronics provides momentum. In terms of wafer application classification, smartphones accounted for 32% of 24Q2 wafer revenue, computers and tablets accounted for 13%, consumer electronics accounted for 36%, connectivity and wearables accounted for 11%, and industry and automobiles accounted for 8%. Among them, the share of smartphones and consumer electronics increased year-on-year. The smartphone and consumer electronics markets are gradually recovering, and the company's growth momentum in the second quarter mainly comes from platforms widely used in consumer electronics and smartphones. Sales revenue of BCD platforms, including power management, switching regulators, LCD drivers, etc., increased by more than 20% month-on-month; sales revenue of RF CMOS platforms, including Bluetooth WiFi receivers and transceivers, increased nearly 30% month-on-month.
We forecast that the company's net profit for 24-26 will be 4.47/5.49/6.9 billion yuan respectively (the original 24-26 forecast was 2.66/3.61/5.22 billion yuan, which mainly adjusted the revenue and gross margin forecast for the wafer foundry business, and lowered the cost ratio forecast). Using the DCF valuation method, we gave a target price of 60.14 yuan to maintain the purchase rating.
Risk warning
Production equipment is difficult to buy; price competition is too intense; production capacity falls short of expectations; customer imports fall short of expectations; risk of continuing uncertainty about preferential tax rates; uncertain other benefits such as government subsidies and investment income