SINGULUS says that it has received new orders for Blu-ray Disc production machines from Euroepae clients during the first four months of 2012.

The demand for new disc manufacturing equipment is speciffically high in Germany from the so-called "independent" movie companies, which are using Blu-ray Discs for the marketing of their movies, accordign to SINGULUS. According to the German Association of Audiovisual Media (BVV), this year's high demand for Blu-ray discs high is mainly also a result of the strong increases of the Blu-ray format: in 2011, the sales volume of the "blue disc" increased by 41 % to 17.0 million discs. Sales rose by +39 % to €267 million and are already accountable for almost one fifths of the total sales volume. In Germany more than 5,000 movies were already available on Blu-ray Disc as of the end of 2011. In the 1st quarter 2012, more than 730 additional movies were published on Blu-ray - this corresponds to a rise of about 47 % compared with the same period in 2011.

An indicator for the continuing growth in Germany is the sharply increasing level of volume sales of Blu-ray players. According to the forecast of the industry association Bitkom, which is based on figures of the Gesellschaft f?r Konsumforschung (GfK), approximately 2.3 million Blu-ray players are expected to be sold in Germany in 2012 moving the German Blu-ray market moves to the European top.

According to forecasts by the market research institute Futuresource Consulting, the global sales for the high definition format Blu-ray is expanding at double-digit rates of about 35 % in 2012 as well.

"Due to the developments in the past year and positive forecasts we expect the growth trend in the Blu-ray market to continue in 2012 and to have a favorable impact on the demand for our Blu-ray production machines. Currently, SINGULUS is in talks with international disc manufacturers for additional projects," commented Dr.-Ing. Stefan Rinck, Chief Executive Officer of the SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES AG.