First ASMI wafer processing equipment plant in Singapore

Dutch company ASM International, supplier of equipment and solutions to the semiconductor industry for wafer processing as well as assembly and packaging of integrated circuits, has set up the first wafer processing equipment plant in Singapore. The plant is located in Yishun, in two buildings with an available floor area of 150,000ft² and 30,000ft² of cleanroom facilities. The plant will have 50 employees by the end of the year. ASMI expects to invest about €73m over the next few years on facilities, equipment and manufacturing process development as well as staff training. ASMI aims to reach an annual shipment level of 100 systems from the Singapore plant by the end of 2006. The Singapore plant will produce its own parts or source locally and assemble the generic subsystems for vertical diffusion furnaces currently handled by ASMI's local contractors in the Netherlands. It also aims to provide manufacturing support to ASMI's US and Japanese subsidiaries for their wafer processing equipment products. The new plant in Singapore will handle many operations locally, including generic assembly, logistics and sourcing. As part of this expansion, ASMI expects to hire about 200 to 300 new people within three years. Arthur del Prado, CEO of ASMI, said: "Asia is the fastest-developing region in the world for the semiconductor industry, and this plant will give us a strategic presence in the region for both front- and back-end semiconductor manufacturing."