SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES AG (SINGULUS) reported increasing sales and earnings figures for the optical discs production equipment business area.
The company was able to record significantly more orders - especially in the
Blu-ray disc growth market - therefore marking a continual positive development in
the Optical Disc division. The company's long-time customers continue to invest in
the production of Blu-ray discs. In terms of sales of Blu-ray machines, SINGULUS
is within the range of its own full-year forecast and projects 45 to 50 new
machine orders for the full-year.
In the coming years SINGULUS expects significant growth in demand for Blu-ray
discs. According to the German Association of Audiovisual Media, for the
high-definition format exceeded the triple-digit million Euro mark for the first
time in Germany with Blu-ray sales of €104 million (€82 million in 2010)
in the first half of 2011. Currently, more than every sixth Euro of sales is
generated with sales of Blu-ray discs. Since most of the new movies like the new
Harry Potter in 2D and 3D, the Star Wars Saga, X-Factor for example and many more
are only released in the second half of 2011, SINGULUS projects a further increase
of Blu-ray sales figures in the next couple of months. More than 5,500 movies are
currently available on Blu-ray disc in Germany (source:
http://www.bluray-disc.de); by the end of the year, a further 849 Blu-ray discs
are due to be released.
The US is currently the biggest sales market for Blu-ray discs. According to
studies of Digital Entertainment Group (USA), the sales figures in the US Blu-ray
market grew by 10 % in the first half-year of 2011 compared with the same period
one year ago. Futuresource Consulting forecasts a global production of 811 million
Blu-ray discs in 2011 ? an increase of 38 % compared with 2010. In the US, the
biggest Blu-ray market, the production volume is even set to expand by 49 %.
Similar growth figures are projected for Europe in 2011. In addition, the market
research institute expects the minimum required global production capacity of
machines for the manufacturing of Blu-ray discs to grow from about 1.274 billion
discs in 2010 to 1.736 billion discs in 2011. Futuresource expects 2.952 billion
discs by 2015.
SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES continues to expand its activities in the segments Solar and
Optical Disc. In the past couple of months SINGULUS has noticed increased
activities in the area of MRAM memory by large semiconductor companies. SINGULUS'
vacuum coating machine TIMARIS is already being utilized by the company's
customers to research MRAM wafers. SINGULUS is also reviewing other sectors and
work areas for which new market segments can be developed on the basis of the
present know-how in the area of vacuum coating.