China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and the Shanghai Government have placed a high value on and provided strong support for the new project. Guests and leaders from the IC industry and investment funds attended the ceremony. The Chairman of SMIC, Dr. Zixue Zhou, and the CEO and Executive Director of SMIC, Dr. Tzu-Yin Chiu, together laid the foundation stone for the new project.

SMIC has 8-inch and 12-inch wafer fabs in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Italy, and the company's revenue has continued to hit record highs recently. SMIC booked record revenue of US $1.3245 billion in the first half of 2016 (a year-on-year increase of 25.4%).

SMIC has achieved 17 consecutive quarters of profit and is close to full production capacity. Revenue is expected to maintain rapid growth of 20% annually over the next three to four years. SMIC will manage production capacity and arrange facility expansions based on customer and market demand.

The Chairman of SMIC, Dr. Zixue Zhou, said: "The start of our new 12-inch wafer fab in SMIC Shanghai will not only help to meet our growing customer demand for advanced production, but also further strengthen and expand SMIC itself."