Not only did we recently set up a new plant at Hittech Wemac in Penang, Malaysia, with a state-of-the-art 600-square-metre cleanroom, but we also handed over the first in-house-assembled mechatronic module in South East Asia for a front-end semiconductor manufacturing customer.
Paul Morach, Managing Director of our Malaysian plant, recalls a day full of positive energy. Paul: “Our team has worked so hard, together with the team in the Netherlands, to make this all happen, and to be able to hand over the first mechatronic product to our customers` delegation had a great impact on us all.”
Marco Verloop, Hittech Group COO, shares Paul’s enthusiasm. Marco: “We have a long-standing relationship with this customer in the Netherlands, and don’t forget that we have been present in Malaysia for almost 20 years. It makes sense to expand this relationship at our new facility in Penang.”
South East Asia is becoming a focal point for semiconductor manufacturing worldwide, and Malaysia and the Netherlands are finding ways to cooperate in advanced manufacturing for front-end semiconductor equipment.
A week before this event, BOM (Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij), Brainport Industries, Oost NL and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Malaysia organised a network tour in Malaysia. After two days in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, a delegation of Dutch companies travelled to Penang, Malaysia’s semiconductor hub.
On the last day, they held a technical forum on building an advanced manufacturing cluster in Malaysia, with Ralph Stassen, Hittech Group’s CCO, as one of the speakers, alongside Lee Lian Loo, Dato’ Dr Bala Murugan and Koon Yin Goon.
