Cree, Inc. has announced that its Japanese distributor, Sumitomo Corporation, has agreed to purchase $180 million of Cree’s light-emitting diode (LED) and wafer products during Cree’s fiscal year ending June 2007, subject to end-customer demand and other terms and conditions.
The $180 million represents approximately a 10-percent increase over Cree’s current estimate for fiscal 2006 sales to Sumitomo. Both companies anticipate that purchases will be made across Cree’s full line of wafer and LED chip products, including MegaBright, XBright, XThin and EZBright(TM) LEDs.
“We are excited about promoting Cree’s advanced LED products in the coming year. Breakthroughs in performance are opening doors to multiple new applications, especially in the consumer electronics and general lighting areas,” states Koichiro Kusano, assistant general manager of Sumitomo’s Electronics Division. “This new agreement helps ensure that Sumitomo can support customers with the best products and services to realize the many new opportunities being pursued.”
“I am pleased to announce this $180 million purchase commitment from Sumitomo for LED chips and wafers during fiscal 2007,” notes Chuck Swoboda, Cree’s chairman and chief executive officer. “We believe the agreement reflects the increasing optimism our sales team sees in Japan for increased market share in white mobile applications and new design wins in emerging markets for LED lighting.”
Sumitomo made the purchase commitment pursuant to its existing distributorship agreement with Cree. Cree previously announced that sales to Japan in fiscal 2006 were running below the original plan for the year.