Hua Hong Semiconductor (01347.HK; 688347.SH), a specialty process integrated circuit foundry, reported its sales revenue reached $539.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, an increase of 18.4% year-on-year and 2.4% quarter-on-quarter.
The chipmaker’s gross margin was 11.4% in the quarter, a year-on-year increase of 7.4 percentage points, but a quarter-on-quarter decrease of 0.8 percentage points. It recorded a loss of $25.2 million, compared to a profit of $35.4 million in the same period last year and $44.8 million in the previous quarter, with a basic loss per share of $0.015.
According to calculations based on the company’s data, Hua Hong Semiconductor’s full-year revenue for 2024 was $2.004 billion, sliding 12.33% from $2.286 billion from the previous year, and full-year net profit was $58.14 million, slumping 79.25% from $280 million in 2023.
Hua Hong expects its Q1 2025 sales revenue to be between $530 million and $550 million, a growth of 15% – 19.5% from $460 million in Q1 2024. It expects a gross margin between 9% and 11%, compared to 6.4% in Q1 2024.
Despite a revenue increase in Q4, Hua Hong did not maintain the performance recovery seen in Q3 last year, with net profit turning into a loss. The company stated that the revenue increase was mainly due to higher wafer shipments, partly offset by a decrease in average selling prices. The quarter-on-quarter growth of 2.4% was driven by both the higher average selling price and the increase in wafer shipments.
The loss attributable to shareholders was mainly due to foreign exchange losses, whereas the same period last year and the previous quarter had foreign exchange gains, it said.
Hua Hong’s President and Executive Director, Bai Peng, said that the company’s Q4 revenue and gross margin met expectations. For the full year 2024, it achieved sales of $2.004 billion, with an overall gross margin of 10.2% and a net profit of $58.14 million.
The market demand was complex and full of changes, with a recovery in the consumer sector and rapid growth in some emerging markets, driving good performance in platforms like image sensors and power management, he said.
However, demand for mid-to-high-end power devices still needs improvement. Despite intense market competition, the company maintained stable revenue and capacity, with a trend of sequential performance improvement. The average capacity utilization rate for the year was close to 100%, placing Huahong at a leading level among global wafer foundries.
In addition, Hua Hong’s second 12-inch production line in Wuxi was successfully completed and put into production in 2024, marking a new milestone in the company’s strategic development. In 2025, Huahong will strengthen its R&D investment in new process platforms and iterations of existing platforms, expand the capacity of the new production line, and continue to build strategic partnerships with key domestic and international customers to further solidify its leading position in the specialty process wafer foundry field.
On February 13, Huahong’s Hong Kong-listed shares closed at HKD 26.30, a decrease of 5.23%, while its A-shares closed at CNY 48.39, down 2.62%.