JVC said on Friday it started producing digital versatile disk (DVD) players in Europe as a step to obtain a 10 percent share in the global market. JVC, owned 52.4 percent by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd , now holds a five to six percent share in the world market for DVD players, a JVC spokeswoman said. The company plans to produce 250,000 DVD players in the year to March 2002 at JVC Video Manufacturing Europe GmbH in Berlin for sale in Europe. JVC intends to sell 500,000 DVD players in 2001/02 in Europe, including 250,000 to be imported from its factories in Shanghai, Malaysia and Japan, she said. It sold just under 200,000 players in Europe in 2000/01.

Demand for DVD players in Europe is expected to rise by 2.5 million units to 6.5 million units in 2001/02, while global demand is forecast to gain 65 percent from a year earlier to 28 million units in 2001/02, the spokeswoman said. Shares in JVC were up 0.62 percent at 813 yen in morning trade, while the benchmark Nikkei average rose 2.12 percent to 12,948.30.