News Article
KLA-Tencor has a new facility in Asia
The company’s new Singapore facility will provide base for regional expansion
KLA-Tencor, a provider of process control solutions for semiconductor manufacturing and related industries, celebrates the official opening of its new facility in Singapore. The company will use this facility to significantly expand its high precision manufacturing as well as enlarge its extensive training, sales and corporate functions. The newly constructed 17,400 m2 building provides state of the art cleanroom space for manufacturing KLA-Tencor’s process control products, with ample room for future expansion. These products are extensively used in virtually every semiconductor ‘fab’ worldwide, and the latest systems can detect nanometer scale defects and anomalies on the wafers used to make the most advanced chips.
“We started our manufacturing in Singapore two years ago, and the remarkable success of this operation laid the groundwork for our new expansion here,” said Rick Wallace, CEO of KLA-Tencor. “This new facility is a major step forward for KLA-Tencor in diversifying our process control product manufacturing and supplier relationships into Asia, where a growing percentage of our customer base is located. Singapore is an important regional hub and offers compelling advantages for our future business operations. ”
“We also want to thank our local and global suppliers, who have demonstrated outstanding commitment to our mutual projects. We depend on this network of companies that supply advanced components used in our systems, with their ability to work to very high tolerances and on tight deadlines. This supply base is truly world class,” Wallace continued.
KLA-Tencor is celebrating the new facility opening with an event that includes a press conference, speeches by Mr. Wallace and Guest Of Honour Mr. S. Iswaran (Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry), employee appreciation events and factory tours.
The new Singapore operation is key to KLA-Tencor’s global business strategy, by continuing to increase the company’s local presence in Asia, where approximately 70% of customers’ operations are located.
“We are extremely proud of our Singapore team. Not only have they surpassed all of our high expectations for productivity, dedication and hard work, but they quickly met and exceeded our rigorous technical standards for precision engineering, manufacturing and on time delivery of a very complex product which is one of the company’s most important technologies,” noted Theo Kneepkens, KLA-Tencor’s vice president for Asia Operations.
Mr. Dan Lee, President of KLA-Tencor SouthEast Asia, said, “Expanding in Singapore offers the opportunity to optimize our global strategy by transitioning selected activities to this new facility, both now and in the future. Our Singapore operation is a key part of KLA-Tencor’s globalisation efforts, putting us closer to customers with the ability to improve our responsiveness to changing customer requirements and market conditions.”
