China's SMIC says expects to return to profit in Q4

HONG KONG, April 30 (Reuters) - China's biggest contract chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (0981.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), is expected to return to profit in the fourth quarter of 2008 after posting deep losses in the first three months of this year, a senior executive said.

The second and third quarters should remain tough for the company but the fourth quarter is expected to see profits as it transforms to logic production from DRAM, President and Chief Executive officer Richard Chang told a telephone conference on Wednesday.

Shanghai-based SMIC (SMI.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) extended quarterly losses to $119.1 million in the three months ended March from a $21.2 million loss for the quarter ended Dec. 31 due to sharp price declines in the global computer memory chip market.

SMIC decided in the first quarter to exit the commodity dynamic random access memory (DRAM) business, which has a carrying value of around $1.2 billion.

For results story please read [ID:nHKG367869] (Reporting by Alison Leung; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree)