Optodisc Technology broke ground at the site of its new headquarters in Hsinchu, Taiwan yesterday. The company expects the new development to raise recordable DVD disc capacity by fivefold over the next four years from its current capacity of just over eight million units per month, according to DigiTimes. The new headquarters is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of next year. With the new site, Optodisc plans to invest about NT$12 billion to build one hundred DVD disc production lines over the next four years, setting up about 25 lines each year, Chang said.

While most of its competitors supply not only DVD discs, but also other optical storage media like CD-R discs, Optodisc has been focusing on recordable DVD media since it was founded three years ago. The company currently has 20 DVD disc production lines, with expectations to double this number by year-end, Chang said.

Among the current production lines, 12 are for DVD+R and DVD-R discs and eight for rewritable DVD discs. Monthly capacities for the write-once and rewritable DVD discs are at six million and between 2.2 million and 2.4 million units, respectively, according to the company.

In the future, the company expects to gradually raise the proportion of rewritable DVD discs. Chang expects this proportion to grow to 45% by year-end from about 30% currently.

Demand for recordable DVD discs has been strong. Although the company is running at full capacity, it manages to satisfy only 60% of received orders. Optodisc currently holds about a 10% share of the global recordable DVD disc market, and is aiming to grow this to 20% in 2004.