US firm Entegris to make Kulim its biggest output base

The Star, Thursday May 14, 2009
By DAVID TAN
 

Nasdaq-listed Entegris speeding up transfer of operations

 

GEORGE TOWN: Nasdaq-listed Entegris Inc aims to make its Kulim Hi-Tech Park (KHTP) facility the group’s largest manufacturing centre by the year-end.

Group chief operating officer Betrand Loy (pic inset) said to achieve this, the group was now accelerating the transfer of its manufacturing and non-manufacturing activities for semiconductor protective material products to the facility.

“We plan to spend between RM40mil and RM50mil to upgrade the KHTP plant over the next two years. To date, Entegris has invested about RM210mil in the facility.

“We will also raise the headcount at the KHTP facility to 750, from the present 488, in 2010 when the semiconductor industry is
expected to recover,” he told StarBiz.

About 15% of the new staff to be hired in 2010 would be engineers and technical personnel, he added.

Loy said that by the year-end, the KHTP plant would accommodate some 30% of the group’s staff of 2,300 worldwide.
“This year, we plan to bring over manufacturing and support activities for six to seven new products to KHTP,” he added.

 

These products include a new range of gas filters and purifiers, wafer process carriers and micro-environment and reticle pods used to control contamination in the manufacturing processes of the semiconductor industry.

“We expect the utilisation of wafer fabrication capacity in the global semiconductor industry to reach 80% to 90% in early 2010,” he said. Loy said the first quarter saw a 70% drop in global semiconductor business compared with the same period a year earlier.

“The semiconductor sector reached its peak in the second quarter of 2008. We expect business to pick up in the second and third quarter of this year,” he said.

Loy said Entegris was slowly shrinking its operations in the United States and shifting them to Kulim. Entegris now has manufacturing and service centres in Massachusetts, Minnesota, Texas, and Colorado, as well as in France, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan.

“At present, the group’s research and development (R&D) work is done in the United States and Japan, with some design and development works for products supporting data storage already established in KHTP.

“But we want to transfer a fair share of such activities to Malaysia, so that the R&D work can be close to the manufacturing activities in KHTP,” he said.

Loy said the transfer of the R&D capability was to reduce time on product development and to respond faster to customers’ needs.

“Currently, more than 50% of our sales come from Japan and (other parts of) Asia. Some 9% of the group’s revenue will be spent on R&D this year,” he added.

To train the necessary skilled workers for the KHTP facility, Entegris has taken part in the Northern Corridor Industrial Technical Enhancement Scheme.

Entegris (Kulim) plant manager Chai Eng Leng said that under the programme, the company had taken in 10 fresh graduates since last year for training at the KHTP facility.

“These graduates will undergo a one-year internship with Entegris. After that, we will decide whether to hire them, based on their performance. We will take in 15 more fresh graduates this year,” he said.

For additional information on Entegris or its services, please visit www.entegris.com