The peak season effect and rise of US$0.01 in CD-R disc prices were slightly reflected in November sales of the leading Taiwan based storage disc makers Ritek and CMC Magnetics. Ritek experienced a rebound in CD-R disc sales this month, citing the price rise starting in October, but suffered a slight drop in CompactFlash (CF) card sales. Consequently, its sales in November remained at the same level as in October. The manufacturing price for CD-R discs is around US$0.17-0.18 per unit.

Benefiting from the CD-R disc price increase, CMC Magnetics, which draws 80% of its revenues from CD-R discs, posted sales of NT$150 million in November, up 2.2% from October. The company’s manufacturing price for CD-R discs is US$0.19-0.2 in Europe and US$0.17-0.18 in other regions.

Ritek and CMC are hopeful of a rise in demand for DVD discs. Ritek by far leads in DVD+R shipments, with a 78.9% global market share. The company also has an 18.2% market share in DVD-R discs and 26.4% share in DVD-ROM discs. CMC Magnetics has a 10.5% market share in DVD-ROM discs. Presently, CMC is utilizing only 50% of its DVD-ROM disc production capacity. It has high hopes for a booming DVD disc market over the next two years.