September 21, 2001 – Taipei, Taiwan – Applied Materials, Santa Clara, CA, will establish its Asia-Pacific warehousing center of such equipment’s components in Taiwan through cooperation with local providers of logistics services.

The warehousing center will supply components of semiconductor production equipment for Applied Materials’ clients in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and mainland China, functioning as the company’s base for offering logistics services in the Asia-Pacific region. The company decided to locate the warehousing center in Taiwan because of the country has a complete semiconductor industry consisting of supporting and downstream companies.

Applied Materials Taiwan, Ltd., the company?s Taiwan subsidiary, is responsible for planning and executing the project. The warehousing center will be set up next year, with location to be preferably near the Chiang Kai-shek International Airport for convenient delivery by air. Applied Materials Taiwan is seeking local partners and studying suitable models for cooperation, the company’s president Chiam Wu indicated. The business operation of the warehousing center will be based on an e-commerce platform to expedite sales transactions, Wu noted.

Applied Materials Taiwan previously cooperated with its parent firm’s subsidiaries in Japan and South Korea for mutual occasional supplies of needed components. The demand for components is increasing as semiconductor manufacturers speed up upgrading of their manufacturing processes and equipment. Applied established the warehousing center in order to have a mechanism to coordinate supply of components efficiently.