Ritek: 2004 global CD-R demand to reach 11-12 billion units

Demand for CD-R discs will continue to grow until the market
becomes saturated in 2007-2008, but prices are expected to remain steady
in the coming years due to a stable supply and demand situation, Yeh
said.

The outlook is more promising for DVD-R/+R
discs, with Hewlett Packard (HP) predicting global demand to hit two
billion units in 2004, while other sources predict at 4.2-4.5 billion
units in 2005, according to Yeh.

To cope with the increasing demand, Ritek
plans to ramp up its combined production of CD-R and DVD-R/+R discs by 25%
on-year in 2004, Yeh said. The Ritek group is currently cranking out a
combined total of more than 170 million CD-R and DVD-R/+R discs per month,
according to Yeh.

As part of the group's expansion project,
Ritek plans to build a new plant in southeastern China aimed at the
Chinese mainland's vast market, said Yeh, adding that the plan may be
finalized in the first quarter of next year. The projected new plant will have a capacity to roll out
between 40 million and 60 million optical storage discs per month, Yeh
said.

According to the Japanese research firm
Fujiwara-Rothchild, Ritek's DVD-R/+R discs accounted for 30.7% of the
global market in the third quarter of 2003 and DVD-RW discs
24.5%.