Taiwan's three largest producers of optical discs - CMC, Prodisc and Ritek - indicated that they will not adjust their prices of blank CD-R discs for the first quarter of 2004.
As global demand has grown, the three makers' price quotes for CD-R discs have kept rising from US$0.11-0.12 (6.4p-7p) per unit early this year to US$0.20-0.22 (11.6p-12.8) at present, or about 7-10% each quarter. The three companies' gross margins on CD-R discs have increased to 25-30%.
The companies have shifted some CD-R disc production capacity to making DVD+R/-R discs to meet growing demand. They hope that stable pricing will balance out a reduction in CD-R disc output and create a healthy market in the first quarter of 2004.
Story source:
digitimes.com.