Japan's Sumitomo Electric Industries announced the expansion of its optical device and optical transceiver manufacturing at Sumitomo Electric Photo-Electronics Components in Suzhou.

SEI, an established manufacturer of optical components and modules, announced the addition of a new integrated production site in China. The new facility adds an additional 155,000 square feet to its existing five optical component/module manufacturing plants. Fiber optic components such as optical devices and optical transceivers not only have expanded to public communication applications and optical LANs, but also to Fiber-to-the-Home. This market continues to grow at 15% per year. Under such circumstances SEI has continued development and production of fiber optic components mainly in Japan for more than 20 years. SEI has delivered high quality products to worldwide customers during this period.

This time SEI has established SPEC in Suzhou, China and started production this month in order to achieve stable supply of fiber optic components and modules for the global optics market corresponding to the market growth and need to satisfy worldwide customers with shorter lead time.

Initially, SPEC began production of low bit rate optical transceivers whose demand is the largest for public communications and optical LANs applications. Later this year, SPEC will start the production of high bit rate optical transceivers whose demand is expected to increase dramatically in the future.