(Yicai Global) Aug. 6 -- Shares in Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp surged as much as 11 percent today in Shanghai and 10 percent in Hong Kong after China’s biggest chipmaker reported a better-than-expected performance for the second quarter with profit leaping five times from the same period last year as the global chip shortage pushes up prices.

SMIC’s Shanghai-listed share price [SHA:688981] nudged up 0.39 percent to close at CNY67.46 (USD10). Earlier in the day it had reached CNY74.90. Its Hong Kong stock [HKG:0981] finished the day 0.90 percent higher at HKD28.15 (USD3.62). Earlier in the day it had reached HKD30.80.

SMIC logged profit of USD688 million for the three months ended June 30, the Shanghai-based firm said in its latest earnings report released yesterday. Revenue was up 43.2 percent year on year and 21.8 percent quarter on quarter to USD1.3 billion. The company had earlier predicted an up to 19 percent gain in revenue from the first quarter.

Due to the global wafer shortfall, SMIC is struggling to keep up with demand. All its 8-inch wafers were used in the second quarter, it said. Its gross margin was up 7.4 percentage points from the first quarter and 3.6 percentage points from the same period last year to 30.1 percent, it said.

The firm’s recent inclusion in the US’ so-called Entity List in December last year, which prevents it from buying US hardware and software, seems to be having little impact. It is raising its annual sales growth target and average gross margin to 30 percent giving the relatively stable external environment, SMIC said.

Editor: Kim Taylor