Sanyo Electric will start selling key components for DVD recorders to outside companies, by the end of the year. Sanyo will sell the loader, which combines the disc tray with the optical pickup needed for recording and playback, to manufacturers in China and Taiwan. This part will enable producers with no special technological expertise to make DVD recorders.

The firm's loader is compatible with both the DVD-RW standard that Sony Corp is using and the DVD+RW standard that has made headway in Europe.

Sanyo is the world's largest supplier of loaders for DVD players, having sold about 3.2 million of the components in fiscal 2002, mainly to manufacturers in China and Taiwan.

The company expects the interest of the DVD market to shift from players to recorders, and thus has decided to sell loaders with recording functions to outside firms.

Sanyo will also sell some of the recorder loaders to Japanese manufacturers. In fiscal 2004, it will aim to sell about 450,000 of the units to outside companies.