By Reuters

(Reuters) - United Parcel Service (UPS) opened a new $100 million logistics centre in ‌Taiwan on Wednesday, its largest in the Asia ‌Pacific, riding a wave of demand from tech companies.

Taiwan is home ​to TSMC, the world's top contract chip-maker and dominant supplier of the advanced semiconductors powering the boom in AI technologies.

UPS said the site in northern Taiwan's ‌Taoyuan, a short ⁠drive from the island's largest international airport, will also be used by Applied Materials, ⁠the largest U.S. semiconductor equipment maker, as an Asian distribution centre.

"Around 80% of the freight is high-tech," Lauren ​Zhao, president ​of UPS Asia Pacific ​Supply Chain Solutions and ‌Freight Forwarding, told reporters at the new facility.

"Everyone knows that Taiwan's semiconductor industry is the most advanced in the world, and the manufacturing processes related to the semiconductor industry are also where Taiwan is ‌leading the world," she added.

While UPS ​currently only operates out of ​Taoyuan airport, its ​managing director for Japan, South Korea ‌and Taiwan, Sam Hung, said ​the company was ​also considering flights to Kaohsiung in the south, depending on customer demand.

Kaohsiung is where TSMC is ​building a ‌large new factory as part of a developing ​semiconductor cluster in southern Taiwan.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; ​Editing by Alexander Smith)

This week on Reuters

• Dwindling central bank support for Indian rupee, bonds spooks markets

• How investors buy gold and what fuels the market

• Foreign outflows hit Asian stocks as Iran war drives oil shock fears

• Pound loses footing, business activity growth slows on Iran war hit