August 19, 2004 – ASM International, Bilthoven, The Netherlands, plans to invest more than $29 million to set up Singapore’s first wafer processing facility. The plant in Yishun will include 150,000 sq. ft. of space and 30,000 sq. ft. of cleanroom facilities.

The site will produce its own parts or source locally, and assemble generic subsystems for vertical diffusion furnaces currently handled by ASMI’s Dutch contractors, starting with the A412 system (full production slated for mid-2005). It also will provide manufacturing support to ASMI’s US and Japanese subsidiaries. The company is targeting domestic shipments of 100 systems by the end of 2006.

“Singapore plays a strategic role in [the growing Asia-Pacific] region, hence our decision to locate our manufacturing hub for wafer processing equipment here,” said Arthur del Prado, CEO of ASMI.

The operations will have 50 employees by the end of the year, and is expected to grow to 200 or 300 within three years.