Responding to LED demand, Cree North Carolina's Durham plant plans to expand production

Light-emitting diode (LED) upstream chip maker Cree Inc. announced after the close of the US stock market on the 8th that in response to the expansion of the Durham plant in North Carolina, the company will hire 275 employees locally in the current (2009) year. . In addition, Cree expects to add another 300 jobs by the end of 2012.

Cree shares rose 1.28% during the normal trading session on the 8th, closing at 37.10 US dollars, the highest since September 9; the follow-up rose 0.73% to 37.37 US dollars. Cree Inc. announced on September 8 that the company will issue 11 million shares of common stock. Cree said that $150 million of the proceeds will be used to cover capital expenditures for fiscal year 2010, while the rest will be used for general corporate purposes such as strategic investments.

Cree predicted on August 11 that this quarter (July-September) earnings per share will be between 0.21 - 0.23 US dollars, sales revenue will be between 1.60-1.66 billion US dollars. Cree2009's fiscal fourth quarter (April-June) earnings per share reached $0.18; sales revenue increased 9% to $148.1 million. Cree Chairman and CEO ChuckSwoboda pointed out in a press release that the strong performance of the April-June financial report reflects the company's successful strategy to promote the LED and LED lighting applications market. He also said that looking forward to the fiscal year 2010, the company's backlog of orders from July to September is very strong, and the demand for LED product lines is gradually rising.