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     This story was printed from CdrInfo.com,

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Ritek announced additional investment of US$15 million in its subsidiary Kunshan Welltec, located in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, China, with the investment made through its overseas subsidiary, Max Online Limited, registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI).

CMC Magnetics, meanwhile, recently decided to shut down its factory for CD-R, CD-RW and DVD blank discs in Ireland; the company will ship the manufacturing equipment back to Taiwan.

Ritek has established two subsidiary makers in Kunshan, Kunshan Welltec and Kunshan Hutek, with a current aggregate production capacity of 30 million CD-R discs and 5 million DVD discs a month. Ritek had previously invested US$4.9 million in Kunshan Welltec, and the additional investment is intended to improve the subsidiary?s financial health, the company indicated.

Including this previous investment, Ritek has been officially allowed cumulative investment of US$91.28 million in China by Taiwan?s Ministry of Economic Affairs, accounting for 13.30% of paid-in capital, 3.28% of total asset value and 4.97% of shareholder equity based on the company?s latest financial report. To date, the company has invested US$64.78 million in China, not including this additional investment.

CMC has decided to withdraw from Ireland because production in Europe is becoming too cost prohibitive, the company indicated. According to CMC, the company acquired the factory through purchasing MC Infonic Ireland, an Irish subsidiary of Japan-based Mitsubishi Chemical, in August 2001, in order to gain access to the optical disc market in Europe and avoid possible antidumping tariffs imposed by the European Union. The manufacturing equipment at the factory in Ireland will be adjusted to produce five million DVD discs a month in Taiwan, CMC said.

Although CMC is closing its Ireland-based factory, the company still plans to maintain its other European production base, Europa Magnetics Corporation, established in Cramlington, Northumberland, England, in 1993, the company noted. The British subsidiary is able to turn out 10 million blank CD-R discs a month.