A grand opening ceremony was held for Cree Huizhou Solid State Lighting Co., Ltd. at the Huizhou Zhongkai High-tech Industrial Development Zone in Huizhou City, Guangdong Province. Government officials including Huang Ye Bin, Huizhou Municipal Party Secretary and Andrew Gately, U.S. Consulate General in Guangzhou attended the ceremony. Charles (Chuck) M. Swoboda, Cree Chairman & CEO, Steve Kelley, Cree Executive Vice-President (EVP) & Chief Operating Officer (COO), Soo Ghee Lee, Managing Director of Cree Hong Kong Limited and Richard Sy, Cree Vice-President & General Manager of China Region attended and addressed the opening ceremony.

Charles (Chuck) M. Swoboda, Cree Chairman & CEO

Andrew Gately, U.S. Consulate General in Guangzhou

Responding to the call of the Chinese government from a global perspective of strategic development, Cree officially signed an important LED chip project agreement with Huizhou in November 2009. The agreement involved the establishment of Huizhou Solid State Lighting Co., Ltd., Cree’s first chip manufacturing base outside North America. This also makes Cree the first international LED company to set up a chip manufacturing base in China. Thanks to the great support and care from the People’s Government of Guangdong Province, the Huizhou Municipal People’s Government and the Administrative Committee of the Huizhou Zhongkai High-tech Industrial Development Zone, Huizhou Cree Semiconductor Lighting Co., Ltd. was completed and put into production in just 8 months. Currently, it undertakes wafer cutting, testing and classification process before LED packaging. The project has further integrated Cree’s LED industry chain and expanded its LED chip production capacity to better meet the demand for global LED market and enhance Cree’s leadership in the LED industry.

Unveiling of the grand opening

Currently, with the common challenges facing all countries in the world such as climate change, energy shortage and economic development, it has become an inevitable choice to take a road of energy conservation, environmental protection and sustainable development. LED products have notable advantages in saving energy, while developing the LED industry is an important part of a low carbon economy. Cree boasts of unique GaN and SiC LED material technologies and advanced white light technologies and is a leader in technological innovation and core technologies. Though Cree is a US-based company listed on NASDAQ, the Cree management does not define it as a US company. Cree has leveraged its international channels and Chinese wisdom to establish an internationalized team and taken advantage of local wisdom to achieve faster development in the Chinese market. China is an important market for Cree. Currently, over half of its employees work and live in China. Cree will continue to increase its investment in China, train more talent, research and develop more technologies and produce more best-quality products. Cree has a strong local management team and rich production experiences and enjoys a solid foundation in Huizhou. The opening of Cree Huizhou Solid State Lighting Co., Ltd. signifies a new milestone in Cree’s drive to “base on China to serve China and the whole world!”

The grand opening of Cree Huizhou Solid State Lighting Company

The opening ceremony was held at Cree Huizhou Solid State Lighting Co., Ltd. in the morning. Charles (Chuck) M. Swoboda, Cree Chairman & CEO, made the opening address. Excitedly, he said: “Cree will bring LED products with rich high-tech element to China. Meanwhile, it will also attract the best talent to build up a strong R&D team in Huizhou. Cree Huizhou Solid State Lighting Co., Ltd. has long been an embodiment of Cree’s determined efforts to shoulder the historical mission of pushing forward changes in LED lighting. Cree will continue, as it has always done in the past, to carry forward its “Cree core, China linkage” development strategy, forge closer cooperation with concerned government departments, industry organizations and enterprises to jointly fuel the healthy, scientific and orderly development of the LED semiconductor lighting industry and urban LED lighting and make more contributions to energy conservation and emission reduction in China.”

An international LED lighting forum held at the Kande International Hotel in Huizhou.

In the afternoon, an international LED lighting forum was held at the Kande International Hotel in Huizhou. The forum was sponsored by the Huizhou Municipal People’s Government and the Semiconductor Lighting Committee of the China Association of Lighting Industry and organized by the Administrative Committee of the Huizhou Zhongkai High-tech Industrial Development Zone and Cree. It aimed to draw upon the opening of Cree Huizhou Solid State Lighting Co., Ltd. to publicize green LED lighting and promote the wider application of LED technology in urban lighting. Tang Guoqing, General Manager for market at Cree China presided over the forum, and Zhang Ying, Vice-mayor of Huizhou Municipal People’s Government made the opening speech. Charles (Chuck) M. Swoboda, Cree Chairman & CEO, Chen Yansheng, Director-General of the China Association of Lighting Industry and Yang Pengfei, Director of the Administrative Committee of the Huizhou Zhongkai High-tech Industrial Development Zone all made insightful speeches at the forum.