AMEC posts 161% net profit rise in 2020
AMEC, the largest semiconductor equipment vendor on the Chinese mainland, yesterday reported a 161-percent jump in net profit last year thanks to investment returns and booming chip demand.
Shanghai-based AMEC’s revenue last year gained 16.8 percent to 2.27 billion yuan (US$349.2 million) while net profit surged to 492 million yuan.
It was in the middle of the STAR-listed company’s previous expectations of net profit hitting 440 to 520 million yuan.
AMEC offers core equipment for chip makers such as SMIC, China’s top chipmaker.
Of the net profit, AMEC earned 262 million yuan for holding shares in SMIC, which listed on the Shanghai STAR Market last year.
SMIC is now the STAR Market’s
No. 1 firm by market value.
Shanghai plans to double the value of the local integrated circuit industry by 2025, which boost the whole industry, especially local firms such as AMEC, SMIC and National Silicon.
But AMEC also faces an uncertain business environment.
SMIC, its major client, was added to the US Entity List last year, which affected its sales and capacity, and further influenced sales of AMEC’s equipment.
AN illegal gold mine in Indonesia’s Sulawesi island collapsed on nearly two dozen people working inside, killing six and leaving another worker missing, officials said yesterday.
Survivors estimated about 22 people were trapped in the rubble when the mine in Central Sulawesi Province’s Parigi Moutong district collapsed late on Wednesday, said Andrias Hendrik Johannes, who heads the local search and rescue agency.
Rescuers pulled 15 people from the debris and recovered the bodies of three women during a grueling search by yesterday morning, he said.
The bodies of two men and a woman were found in the afternoon.
Police, emergency personnel, soldiers and volunteers were trying to locate one worker.
Their efforts were hampered by the remote location and the unstable soil.
Illegal or informal mining operations are common in the country, providing a tenuous livelihood to those who labor in conditions with a high risk of serious injury or death.
Landslides, flooding and collapses of tunnels are just some of the hazards.
Much of the processing of gold involves the use of highly toxic mercury and cyanide by workers with little or no protection.
Indonesia accounts for about 3 percent of world gold production. Most comes from the Grasberg mine in Papua province, with US$40 billion in reserves and up to 20,000 workers.