Welcome to Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation's fourth quarter 2023 webcast conference call. Today's call will be simultaneously streamed through the Internet and telephone. Please be advised that if you join the meeting by phone, your dial-in is in listen-only mode. However, after the conclusion of the management's presentation, we will have a question-and-answer session. At this time, you'll receive instructions on how to participate.
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Without further ado, I'd like to introduce Miss Guo Guangli, Senior Vice President and Board Secretary, to host the webcast.
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Greetings! Welcome to SMIC's fourth quarter 2023 webcast conference call. Attending today's call are Dr. Zhao Haijun, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Wu Junfeng, Senior Vice President and Person-in-Charge of Finance.
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Let me remind you that today's presentation may contain forward-looking statements that do not guarantee future performance, but represent the company's expectations and are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties. Please refer to the forward-looking statements in our earnings announcement. Please note that today's earnings statement is presented in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, IFRS, and all currency figures are in U.S. dollars, unless otherwise stated.
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I will now hand the call to Dr. Wu Junfeng to introduce the company's financial status.
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First, I will report our unaudited operating results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2023, followed by our guidance for the first quarter of 2024.
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The fourth quarter operating results are as follows: revenue was $1.678 billion, up 3.6% sequentially. Gross margin was 16.4%, down 3.4 percentage points sequentially. Profit from operations was $107 million, up 22.8% sequentially. EBITDA was $1.011 billion. EBITDA margin was 60.2%. Profit attributable to the Company and the non-controlling interests were $175 million and $63 million, respectively.
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The company's unaudited operating results for full year of 2023 are as follows: revenue was $6.322 billion. Gross margin was 19.3%. Profit from operations was $358 million. EBITDA was $4.064 billion. EBITDA margin was 64.3%. Profit attributable to the company was $903 million. Capital expenditure was $7.47 billion.
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Moving to the balance sheet. At the end of 2023, the company had total assets of $47.8 billion, of which total cash on hand was $16.7 billion. Total liability was $16.9 billion, of which total debt was $10.2 billion. Total equity was $30.8 billion. Debt to equity was 33.1% and net debt to equity was -21.1%.
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In terms of cash flow, in 2023, we generated $3.358 billion cash from operating activities. Net cash used in investing activities was $6.208 billion. Net cash from financing activities was $2.466 billion.
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For the first quarter 2024, our guidance is as follows: Revenue is expected to be flat to +2% sequentially, and gross margin is expected to be in the range of 9%-11%.
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This concludes the financial status. Thank you.
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Thank you, Dr. Wu. Next, I will hand the call to Dr. Zhao Haijun to comment on operations.
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Thank you for attending today's earnings call. Wishing everyone an early Happy Lunar New Year!
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In 2023, we experienced a year of industry downturn and the annual output value of foundry industry declined by double digits. After 2 years of global chip shortage and the industry overheating, the semiconductor industry encountered deep corrections in market demand and industry competition caused by high inventories, a macroeconomic downturn and intensified geopolitical tensions, which persist till now. The industry was in the first U of the double U trend. In the second half of 2023, SMIC-related areas like smartphones, consumer electronics, and others didn't show a significant turnaround. Although the inventory situation in the overall market had been mitigated and good news has been read in high-end product fields. In the third quarter of 2023, the mobile industry chain underwent upgrades, which provided some innovative product companies with opportunities.
They initiated rush orders and began to recover. However, since the total unit shipments of smartphones and computers for the full year of 2024 is expected to increase slightly, and the industry has not seen full recovery, we are still monitoring closely to see whether the rush orders can sustain.
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SMIC experienced the trough of the downturn cycle in the first quarter of 2023, but bottomed out in the second quarter and continued to grow in the third and fourth quarter. In Q4, the company's revenue was $1.678 billion, up 3.6% sequentially, slightly beat the guidance. Gross margin was 16.4% in line with the guidance. Across various platforms, mobile phone related CMOS, image sensor and display driver chips performed well. The revenue from CIS and ISP increased by more than 60% sequentially, and the production capacity was in short supply. The revenue from DDIC and TDDI increased by nearly 30% sequentially, with strong competitiveness in 40-nanometer and 55-nanometer markets. The company has also built up good deployment in AMOLED technology application.
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According to the unaudited financial results, the company's revenue in 2023 was $6.32 billion, down 13% year-over-year. Gross margin was 19.3%, basically in line with the company's guidance provided in the beginning of 2023. By region, revenue from China, America and Eurasia accounted for 80%, 16%, and 4% respectively. By size, wafer revenue from eight-inch and 12-inch accounted for 26% and 74%. Wafer revenue by application: smartphone, computer and tablet, consumer electronics, connectivity, and IoT, industrial and automotive accounted for 27%, 27%, 25%, 12%, and 10% respectively. The company's capital expenditure was $7.5 billion. Monthly capacity was 806,000 eight-inch equivalent wafers by the end of the year, and annualized capacity utilization rate was 75%.
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In 2024, the company will still face the challenges from macroeconomic, geopolitics, industry competition, and inventory for old products. We believe that the company's performance in the second U of the double U trend will be moderate. Along with the semiconductor ecosystem, the company will emerge from the downturn. The company will realize relatively stable and mild growth, driven by the combined influence of gradual improvement in customer inventory and continued rebound in demand for smartphone and connectivity. However, from the perspective of the overall market, the demand recovery is not strong enough to support a comprehensive and strong rebound of semiconductor industry.
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Combining the above factors, the company's first quarter guidance is as follows: revenue is expected to be flat to up 2% sequentially, and the gross margin is expected to be in the range of 9%-11%. The main reasons for the decrease in gross margin in the first quarter are product mix change and SMIC Jingcheng start depreciation, pricing decline.
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Based on the premise that there are no significant changes in the external environment, the company's guidance for the year 2024 is the revenue growth is expected to be not less than industry average in the same markets and around mid-single-digit % year-over-year. In 2024, the company plans to continue the progress of 12-inch FAB and capacity building projects that have been announced in recent years. The capital expenditure is expected to maintain roughly flat compared to that of previous year.
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Let me give some comments for the above guidance of revenue and capital expenditure. First, since 2022, the uncertainty of the global supply chain has been increased. The industry model of relying on others to supply domestic demand has caused anxiety among governments of various countries, with more and more capacity building based on geopolitical considerations, coupled with the macroeconomic cycle and lagging consumption. In the short term, it will be difficult for foundries to achieve high utilization seen in the past few years. During the process of continuous high investment, the company's growth margin is under the pressure of high depreciation. However, we will always target sustained profitability, strictly control costs, and improve efficiencies.
Secondly, China is the largest chip consumption market in the world. We manufacture locally and have more opportunities. SMIC owns the advantages of market, technology, and product quality, which have been accumulated for more than two decades and enable the company to be more resilient during the cyclical fluctuations. At the same time, the company also pays close attention to the security, reliability, and resilience of the supply chain, and spares no effort to promote the diversification and localization of the supply chain.
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Aim high, but stay grounded. Finally, we would like to extend our sincere thanks and best wishes to friends who care and support the development of the company.
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Thank you, Dr. Zhao. Next is our Q&A session. Questions will be answered by Dr. Zhao and Dr. Wu.
Chinese questions will be answered in Chinese, English questions will be answered in English. Please limit your questions to two per person. I will now like to open up the call for Q&A. Operator, please assist.
[Foreign language] We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again.
[Foreign language] Our first question comes from the line of Leping Huang from Huatai.
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[Foreign language] Our next question comes from the line of C. Hou from China Renaissance。
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[Foreign language] The next question comes from the line of Xiaofei Zhang from Haitong。请提问。
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[Foreign language] Our next question comes from the line of Ziyuan Wang from CITIC Securities.
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[Foreign language] Our final question today comes from the line of Jinxiang Zhou from Guosen Securities.
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[Foreign language] Now I'd like to hand the call back to Miss Guo Guangli for closing remarks.
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Thank you for participating in today's conference call. Thank you for your trust and support. 中芯国际第四季度业绩说明会到此结束，感谢您的参与。 This concludes SMIC fourth quarter webcast conference call. We thank you for joining us today. Goodbye!