Performance verification confirms strong prosperity! SMIC makes a major acquisition plus a new revenue high in 2025, Semiconductor Equipment ETF (561980) surges 3%!

April sees official operations resume, and the domestic equipment industry chain with confirmed high performance surges significantly upward! As of the time of writing, the China Merchants Securities Semiconductor Equipment ETF (561980) is up more than 3%, and companies including WeMic, Hygon Information are up more than 3%, Cambricon and Changchuan Technology are up more than 4%, and companies including Coretronic, Huafeng Measurement & Control, and Jinai Communications are up more than 5%, with multiple stocks such as Northern Huachuang, SMIC, Hua Hong Qingke also rising strongly!

Fund-flow data shows that during the previous trading day’s adjustment period, this ETF saw a large net inflow of more than RMB 27 million, indicating that the market is focusing on areas such as domestically made equipment and materials and self-controllable breakthroughs, with improving industry momentum.

Right at the peak of annual report disclosures, data shows that sectors including semiconductor equipment and materials have performed impressively, with strong performance certainty.

On March 30, WeMic disclosed its 2025 annual report. For the full year, it achieved operating revenue of RMB 12.385 billion, up 36.62% year over year, with operating performance hitting a new historical high; net profit attributable to owners of the parent company was approximately RMB 2.111 billion, up about 30.69% year over year.

At the same time, WeMic announced that it plans to acquire a controlling stake in Hangzhou Zhonggui Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. through a transaction involving issuing shares and paying cash, and raising supporting funds, to fill out its business footprint.

According to Everbright Securities, among the wet-process equipment developed by Hangzhou Zhonggui, the chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) equipment is one of the core equipment for semiconductor process processing. This integration fills the company’s gap in the wet-process equipment segment and enhances its ability to provide customers with system-level end-to-end solutions in advanced process technology.

With the expansion of production lines for China’s advanced process, multiple leading “shovel providers” in the semiconductor industry have continued to benefit from performance increments driven by domestication. Currently, SMIC and Hua Hong Semiconductor, as two leading domestic wafer fabs, as well as Cambricon, among others, have already disclosed their 2025 annual reports. All of them have achieved significant year-over-year growth in full-year revenue and net profit, with capacity continuing to expand.

In terms of semiconductor materials, according to Guotai Junan Securities, driven by a sharp increase in wafer fab utilization rates (SMIC’s 25Q1 utilization rate is 89.6%, with a forecast for 26Q1 of over 96%) and the high level of activity in memory chips (Yangtze Memory, Hefei CXMT) combined with the expansion of memory chip capacity, semiconductor materials companies’ outlook for Q1 is optimistic.

【April Market Shifts Toward Performance Certainty; Domestic Semiconductor Equipment and Materials Enter a Golden Window】

In 2026, the storage supercycle accelerates and evolves. Product prices have shifted from the “epic-level” increase in 2025 Q4; contract prices and spot prices both jumped, and the increase has been transmitted across channels, modules, and complete systems. Citic Securities noted that, as AI training and inference drive rapid growth in computing power demand, data centers’ storage demand for HBM, high-capacity DDR5, and enterprise-level SSDs is growing quickly, with industry momentum continuing to improve.

According to Guotai Junan Securities, as DRAM and NAND architectures develop toward 3Dization, it will significantly increase demand related to etching and thin-film deposition equipment. Among them, the addressable markets for equipment corresponding to DRAM and NAND driven by 3Dization are roughly 1.7 times and 1.8 times the original levels, respectively; therefore, domestic semiconductor equipment companies are expected to gradually grow stronger.

According to materials, the China Merchants Securities Semiconductor Equipment ETF (561980) tracks the CICC Semiconductor Index. Among the top ten holdings are leading players such as WeMic, Northern Huachuang, Northern Huachuang, SMIC, Hygon Information, Cambricon, and HSGC, which are leading companies in semiconductor equipment, materials, and integrated circuit design and manufacturing. 100% focuses on the core chip industrial chain; the top ten holdings’ concentration is as high as over 75%, and it is expected to fully benefit from the wave of domestic substitution.

Data shows that, as of March 31, the cumulative gains of the CICC Semiconductor Index since 2020 and from 2025 to date are 235% and 64.02% respectively, far outperforming mainstream comparable semiconductor theme indices such as Sci-Tech Innovation Chip, and semiconductor materials equipment, highlighting a stronger rebound sharpness and aggressiveness, and suggesting it has the potential to be more resilient in the next upcycle for semiconductors.

(Editor: Dong Pingping)

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