Cree gets $100m LED chip order

04 Apr 2003

Sumitomo has signed a commitment to purchase USD 100 million of LED chips during Cree's fiscal year 2004.

Nitride LED manufacturer Cree has revealed that Sumitomo Corporation has agreed to purchase approximately $100 million of Cree's LED products during Cree's fiscal year ending June 30, 2004. Sumitomo sells Cree's LED chips to packaging customers in Japan.

This purchase commitment, the largest in Cree's history, is subject to end customer demand and other terms and conditions. The amount of the agreement is four times larger than Sumitomo's commitment last year.

Cree and Sumitomo anticipate that the purchases will cover Cree's full line of LED products, including standard brightness devices, MegaBright and other mid-brightness devices, and XBright LEDs.

"This agreement is indicative of the growth we have experienced in Japan," said Chuck Swoboda, Cree's president and CEO. "We believe this is a direct result of our sales and engineering team at Cree Japan, Inc. working closely with Sumitomo to support the major LED packagers in Japan."

"In the past year we have seen explosive growth in the market for Cree's LEDs in Japan," said Koichiro Kusano, general manager of Sumitomo's Electronic Materials & Equipment department. "We are excited that the business is spread across multiple applications among Japan's leading optoelectronic companies."

"Sumitomo sees continued growth in this segment, especially with the introduction of Cree's market-leading high brightness products," continued Kusano. "This agreement represents our commitment to Cree's business in Japan as well as supporting the increasing customer demand for Cree's products."

The new agreement reflects expected demand for the second year of the existing three-year Distributorship Agreement with Sumitomo and insures a continued local supply of Cree's LED chips for the Japanese market.