Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (NYSE: SMI; SEHK: 981) announced on Friday that its consolidated results for the third quarter.

Sales rose 10.9 percent to US$310.0 million from US$279.5 million in the prior quarter. The Company reported an increase in capacity to 143,188 8-inch equivalent wafers per month and an increase in utilization rate to 92 percent. Gross margins were 8.2 percent, while net loss decreased to US$26.1 million compared to a net loss of US$40.4 million in the second quarter.

"As we continued to focus on the execution of our business plan we saw strong orders from our customers across leading edge and mainstream technology nodes during the third quarter," said Dr. Richard Chang, President and Chief Executive Officer of SMIC.

"We increased the contribution from our high-end processes deriving more than 90 percent of our revenues from 0.18μm and below technology for the first time.    

(China.org.cn October 28, 2005)