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ASM International starts US production

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US sales account for 21% of revenue, highest among

European

peers

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CEO says local production is competitive advantage

(Adds background in paragraphs 5-6 and 8-9; CEO in paragraph 7)

By Nathan Vifflin

April 30 (Reuters) - Dutch chip-making equipment

supplier ASM International has started local

production of tools for U.S. chipmakers in response to the U.S.

tariffs backdrop, its Chief Executive said on Wednesday.

"We've already started to manufacture some of the tools for

our customers in the U.S., just to get us started," CEO Hichem

M'Saad said a day after the company reported quarterly earnings.

"Our global installed base, our global infrastructure,

allows us to really have manufacturing in many places - and

Phoenix, Arizona, is one of them."

ASM is the most exposed to the U.S. market among European

peers including ASML and BESI, with U.S.

sales accounting for 21% of its revenue last year.

It also competes with major U.S. players such as Applied

Materials ( AMAT ) and LAM Research ( LRCX ), and analysts have

warned it is at risk of losing market share to them.

Europe's second-largest semiconductor equipment supplier has

had a presence in Arizona for more than half a century, where it

has been joined by customers such as Intel ( INTC ) and TSMC

which manufacture advanced chips for Nvidia ( NVDA )

and AMD.

M'Saad said being close to chipmakers will help with the

development and adoption of ASM's most advanced processes, like

Atomic Layer Deposition, where it has so far had little

competition.

ALD allows for the creation of ever smaller chip circuits by

depositing atomic thin layers of materials on a silicon wafer.