BUSINESS boomed last year for Hong Kong and Shanghai-listed chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) on the back of a global chip shortage, with revenues and profits soaring despite pressure from U.S. sanctions.

Sales for 2021 rose 39 percent on the year at a record of US$5.4 billion, propelled by worldwide demand, the company said in an annual financial report. Refinitiv data showed it was the company’s strongest growth in annual revenue since 2010.

“The global shortage of chips and strong demand for local and indigenous manufacturing brought our company a rare opportunity,” Guo Guangli, the secretary of the board, said on an earnings call Friday.

Profit from operations for the year reached US$1.4 billion, a roughly four-fold increase from 2020.

SMIC, which makes physical computer chips to the designs of other companies, has a small share of the chip fabrication sector, which is dominated by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. But it is the largest and most advanced fab on the Chinese mainland.

SMIC’s sales ballooned in 2021 after a global chip shortage that began in late 2020, driving up prices and bringing a jump in orders.

That year, the company, headquartered in the commercial hub of Shanghai, said it would build three new fabs in Beijing as well as in Shenzhen, and its home city, at a cost of several billion dollars each.

On the earnings call, Guo said SMIC expected to open the Shanghai fab in early 2022 and its Beijing and Shenzhen fabs by year’s end.

The company is pushing ahead with expansion despite U.S. sanctions that have shaken plans to move into high-end chip manufacturing.

Late in 2020, the United States put SMIC on the U.S. Department of Commerce’s entity list, requiring U.S.-based suppliers to obtain licenses to deal with the company.

On Friday, company officials told investors that orders from SMIC’s suppliers still take a long time to fill because of the curbs. (SD-Agencies)