SMIC Q2 revenues to take 6% hit due to tool maintenance and validation issues

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SMIC has had trouble with yields and output which will reduce this quarter's revenues by 6%, reports DigiTimes.

www.electronicsweekly.com, May. 13, 2025 – 

The problems are said to have stemmed from SMIC having to use its own engineers to perform tool maintenance which is usually done by the tool suppliers’ engineers.

Under US restrictions, Western tool suppliers are not allowed to send engineers to China to perform maintenance.

“An unexpected incident during scheduled annual maintenance disrupted production lines and compromised process accuracy, leading to a drop in yield rates affecting revenues,” it was reported.

Compounding the problems were said to be skipped validation tests at tool suppliers in order to get tools shipped to China before US-imposed export restrictions kicked in,

It is said that validation of newly installed equipment at SMIC equipment “uncovered performance issues that needed correction, causing additional yield fluctuations.”

SMIC is said to have taken between $30 and $75 million out of the R&D budget to fix the issues.

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