(Japanese Site)
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| Taiwan DVD Makers to Begin Mass Production Soon
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February 23, 1998 (TAIPEI) -- Several Taiwan manufacturers of DVDs and DVD players are scheduled to begin mass
production in 1998.
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This is expected to help alleviate the DVD player shortage here that was caused by a slow supply from Japanese
companies.
Currently, most Taiwan-made personal computers are equipped with DVD players from Japan's Toshiba Corp.,
Hitachi Ltd. and Sony Corp.
However, as Japan is the world's leading supplier of DVD players and that country limits exports of high-level
DVD, many Taiwan PC makers have been forced to postpone deliveries due to shortages of Japan-made DVDs.
Taiwan's Ritek Inc. plans to expand capacity to two DVD production lines in 1998.
DVD is thus expected to become the company's major money spinner, contributing an estimated 25 percent of the
company's overall operating revenues. CMC Corp. also plans to increase its monthly DVD output to 400,000 units
in the first quarter.
Advanced Information Inc., an affiliate of computer giant Acer Inc., also intends to begin producing DVD
players and receiving orders on a test basis in 1998.
A report released by the Optoelectronics and Systems Laboratories of the Industrial Technology Research
Institute shows that Taiwan produced about 13 million CD-ROM drives in 1997, accounting for around 20 percent
of global output. DVDs are the follow-on technology to CD-ROMs.
As of now, a total of 14 local research institutions and manufacturers have been admitted to an international
forum of DVD makers. The number of Taiwan members is third, behind Japan and the United States, an indicator
that local information manufacturers are actively following global trends.
(Commercial Times, Taiwan)
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