Sumitomo is a manufacturer of electric wire and optical fiber cables. The company was founded in 1897 to produce copper wire for electrical uses. Sumitomo operates in five business fields: Automotive, Information & Communications, Electronics, Environment & Energy, and Industrial materials and is developing in two others: Life Sciences and Materials & Resources. It has more than 350 subsidiaries and over 270,000 employees in more than 30 countries.
Sumitomo Electric’s electrical wiring harness systems, which are used to send information and energy to automobiles, hold the largest market share in the world. Sumitomo Electric also continues to be the leading manufacturer of composite semiconductors (GaAs, GaN, InP), which are widely used in semiconductor lasers, LEDs, and mobile telecommunications devices. The company is one of the top three manufacturers in the world of optical fiber.
