Ritek Corporation - 500 Beiträge pro Seite

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Service: CompactFlash Card, CompactStor, Dataplay, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW, DVD-RAM, MD, MO, CD Jewel Case, Cake Box, CF Card Adapter, EL Lamp, ITO Glass, Thin Film Filter, Transceiver Module, Liquid-Photo-Imageable Etching Resist, Liquid-Photo-Imageable Solder Mask for Screen Printing, Ultraviolet-Curale Solder Mask, Ultraviolet-Curable Protective Lacquer for Optical Disk



http://www.ritek.com.tw/ritek_e/
Founded in 1988 as the first optical disc manufacturer in Taiwan, RITEK has devoted itself to constantly upgrading the technology, quality and capacity of its products. RITEK has not only made the first CDs, DVDs and OLEDs in Taiwan but also has become the leading manufacturers of storage media in the world. Now RITEK has capital of US$ 480 million, monthly capacity over 100 million pieces and over 3000 employees.
RITEK core competence successfully expands into opto-electronics and optical fiber communication business. We produce state-of-the-art Thin-Film Filter products and full-range optical components.


1988 RITEK Corporation was founded
1989 Awarded in the Geneva International Invention Contest
1990 Manufactured the first CD ever produced in Taiwan
1991 Signed anti-piracy agreement with the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI)
1994 Established optical disc factory in Australia
1995 The first optical disc manufacturer in Taiwan to be certified under ISO 9002
1996 Company stocks went public
Voluntary joined organization for the copyright protection sponsored by (CMA)
Established optical disc factory in USA
Manufactured the first CD-RW in Taiwan
Manufactured the first DVD in Taiwan
[/b]1997[/b] Joins anti-piracy office in Taiwan for the Title Verification Program of the Motion Picture Association (MPA)- Audiovisual Entertainment for Global Audiences in Taiwan
Established optical disc factory in U.K.
Manufactured the first DVD-R in Taiwan
The first optical disc manufacturer in Taiwan to be certified under ISO9001
1998 Launch the first DVD-RAM in Taiwan
The first optical disc manufacturer certified the DVD Forum A-Class member
1999 The first optical disc manufacturer in Taiwan to be certified under ISO14001
RITEK and PHILIPS formed a strategic alliance and established joint venture optical factory in Germany
Launched the first Organic EL in Taiwan
Established the pre-recorded media manufacturer, U-TECH Media Corporation, in Taiwan
2000 Established the first automatic large-volume production lines of OLED in the world
Establishes large-volume production lines of ITO glasses
The first optical disc manufacturer in Taiwan to be certified under QS9000
Established the OLED manufacturer, RITdisplay Corporation, in Taiwan
Established the optical disc manufacturer, RGM (RITEK GLOBAL MEDIA), in USA
Established Ritek Photonics BU as world class optical components supplier
2001 Entering the field of opto-electronics & photonics
Established optical disc factory in Mainland China – HUTEK Corporation
Established the largest jewel case and disc packaging factory in the world – PRORIT Corporation



RiTdisplay Corporation is the pioneer OLED technologies and industry in Taiwan. Spun off from RiTEK Corporation Flat Panel Display Division, RiTdisplay Corporation has further extended RiTEK`s core technology and effective management into itself. After developing top-notch technologies, in-line automatic mass production facilities, world class strategic partnership, RiTdisplay Corporation is going to take off and keep abreast with the top opto electronics companies in the world.
RitDisplay Corparation
Service: OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diodes)

http://www.ritdisplay.com/in_English/index_English.htm

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RGM and Twentieth Century Fox Signed A Long-Term Contract
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Jan 30, 2002

RITEK Global Media (RGM), established to integrate RITEK`s global media operations, has signed a long-term contract for exclusive DVD manufacturing with Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment on the 24th of January. RGM will provide the "One Stop Shopping" full-service including DVD production, packaging, delivery etc. in future. For Pre-recording DVD, RITEK has production lines in RITEK Australia and RGM`s global production base - US-based MRT in addition to RITEK`s subsidiary - U-TECH Media. Therefore, DVD pressed discs under the contract with the Twentieth Century Fox will be produced in these locations.

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RITEK Takes Leading Position in DVD Manufacturing Technology
A Full Range of DVD Products Presented in Computex Taipei 2002


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Jun 14, 2002

Actively engaged in manufacturing, R&D and promotion of DVDs, RITEK is now the world`s largest manufacturer of optical storage media. RITEK`s DVD-R is the first that passed the accreditation by DVD Forum A-Class Lab. In addition, RITEK has successfully manufactured high speed DVD-R with the latest DVD manufacturing technology. With this innovative technology, RITEK is ahead of other DVD makers and takes the leading position in manufacturing high speed DVDs. High speed DVD-R produced by RITEK is much more superior to those by others in quality and stability.

Besides having passed the accreditation by Japan A-Class Lab, RITEK`s DVD-RAM makes RITEK the only Taiwanese manufacturer who can support CPRM (Copy Protection Recordable Media) Code. CPRM Code imposes different levels of limitation on recording for digital signals by global mass media. It is possible to record digital programs only with DVD-RAM that support CPRM Code. In addition to AV recording, it is also possible to store computer data with the same DVD-RAM and to repeatedly record up to 100,000 times. With the capacity up to 9.4GB, DVD-RAM is a very convenient new generation storage media.

In Computex Taipei 2002, RITEK will strongly promote DVD-RAM and co-exhibit the application of DVD-RAM to various hardware equipment with Panasonic, such as DVD-RAM Recorder, DVD-RAM Burner, DVD-RAM Desktop and Notebook etc. RITEK is not only one of the members of Promotion Committee under Recordable DVD Council (RDVDC), but has recently been elected as the deputy chairman of RDVDC. It is predicted that RITEK will have outstanding performance under the significant growth in the Recordable DVD marketplace in 2002.

For other Recordable DVD, RITEK has also produced DVD-RW, DVD+R and DVD+RW. Now the 2.4x version of DVD+R/+RW is launched to provide consumers with a speedier and more convenient option.

In the exhibition, RITEK will introduce the latest versions of CD-R and CD-RW and pioneer in launching CD-Rs 48X, CD-RWs 16X and CD-RWs 24X. RITEK has begun a mass production of CD-R 48X and CD-RW 16X and is superior to others in quality and stability. Both have been delivered to the marketplace and passed the accreditation in lab testing. RITEK has successfully developed and produced CD-RW 24X, which will be immediately available for market needs after the launch of CD-RW 24x drives. RITEK will also present a variety of Flash Memory Cards, Optoelectronic and photonics products, MD, MO and Jewel cases.

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RiTdisplay aims to ship two million mobile phone OLEDs and break even this year




RiTdisplay, which began making shipments of a monochrome mobile phone OLED (organic light-emitting diode) to Korea Telecom Freetel (KTF), has also received orders for several types of mobile phone and electronic book (e-book) OLEDs, including monochrome, four-color and full-color OLEDs. Though final quality approval of the products is still pending, company CEO Wang Ding Chang said that RiTdisplay aims to ship two million OLEDs this year and 10 million OLEDs next year.

RiTdisplay, which supplies five types of OLEDs – two for mobile phones, one for game consoles, one for industrial products and one for e-books – plans to launch 10 more OLEDs with applications ranging from mobile phones, MP3 players, PDAs (personal digital assistants), e-books and car stereos.

In addition to applying OLEDs to portable devices, RiTdisplay also is strongly interested in developing large-size, full-color active matrix (AM) OLEDs for TVs and outdoor displays. The scheduled full-color OLED volume production at its color OLED/PLED (polymer-OLED) factory at the end of this year will be the first step in that direction. The company also is seeking cooperation from Taiwan’s LTPS (low-temperature poly-silicon) TFT LCD producers, including Toppoly Optoelectronics, Prime View International (PVI) and AU Optronics (AUO) as well as overseas companies such as Pioneer.

RiTdisplay, which has paid-in capital of NT$6.1 billion, registered NT$200 million in sales in the first half and aims to achieve NT$1 billion in sales this year. Interested in its development potential, several international companies, including Intel, ViewSonic and DuPont, have become major shareholders.

However, limited by the size of the industry, OLED production costs, including costs of materials and components, are quite high relative to those of TFT LCDs. Not only for RiTdisplay as an individual producer, but also the OLED industry as a whole there still has quite a way to go.

RiTdisplay’s OLED orders and schedule

Product type
Orders
Schedule

Monochrome mobile phone OLED
150,000 units and additional 320,000 units from KTF
Began volume production recently

Monochrome e-book OLED
10,000 units
Began volume production in July

Monochrome mobile phone OLED
500,000 units from a Chinese mobile phone producer
To send approval samples in August and begin volume production in October

Four-color mobile phone OLED
2.5 million units from South Korean mobile phone producer
To send approval samples in July and begin volume production in October.

Full-color mobile phone OLED
100,000 units
To send approval samples in September and begin volume production in December.


Source: company, compiled by DigiTimes, July 2002.



RiTdisplay four-color mobile phone OLED



Company CEO Wang Ding Chang holding a mobile phone with a RiTdisplay OLED

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Ritek, CMC Magnetics set to start CD-R production in China in 3Q

Ritek said its new factory in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province (China) is on track to begin production, denying market rumors that it has closed the plant under bureaucratic hurdles.

The world’s largest CD-R disc maker said it expects to receive an operating license in a month from the provincial government after filing applications in March. If all goes well as expected, the Kunshan plant will soon produce 20 million to 40 million CD-R discs per month.

Meanwhile, rival disc maker CMC Magnetics said a few weeks ago it got the go-ahead to bring its 11 China production lines online. The company aimed to turn out a total of 10 million units by year-end once production starts this quarter.

Fear has been mounting that the companies’ growing capacity in China will blunt the global seasonal recovery anticipated for the current quarter and squeeze already razor-thin margins. A spokesperson at Ritek brushed off such possibilities while CMC said its China-made discs mainly serve China’s domestic market, where demand is still growing strongly.

Both companies, however, said the future direction on CD-R prices remains unclear. After having pushed back schedules to raise prices, CMC said the latest hike may not arrive until the fourth quarter. Ritek said the CD-R sector will see “limited improvement” in the future, without elaborating on its pricing plans.

Ritek’s China efforts have dragged on for two years as it strived to meet regulations on foreign investment in the optical-storage sector. The company had spent US$15 million on equipment and been sent scouting for Chinese partners for months. The Chinese government requires foreign blank disc makers to set up joint ventures with local businesses and to acquire only brand-new equipment for production.

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New Era of OLED

RiTdisplay Realizes OLED Commercialization



Besides LCD displays, demanding product features such as high brightness, high contrast, high image quality, fast response time, self-emitting light make OLED the most promising technology among all flat panel displays. And currently there are increasingly more companies involve in this new platform. Even though, it is interesting to find out that up to now only 2 companies (RiTdisplay and Pioneer) in the world have the ability to commercialize this most state-of-the-art display technology.



Pioneer introduces 1 OLED panel solution for car audio, 2 for cellular phones; RiTdisplay introduces 2 for cellular phones, 1 for game box, 1 for instrument, and 1 for ebook. Furthermore, RiTdisplay will totally introduce around 10 OLED product solutions, including mono color, 4 area colors, and full colors. It covers cellular phones, PDA, MP3, ebook, car audio. We are all expecting to see this new technology to be commercialized and now we can say year 2002 is the year of OLED commercialization.



Obviously RiTdisplay is the most aggressive player either in technology development or in mass production and has shipped many OLED products to customers. In addition, it has the largest production capacity among all OLED players worldwide. RiTdisplay recently receives several hundred thousand pieces order from Korea and nearly 8 million pieces orders will be confirmed in the very near future. OLED shows its extremely competitive power in cellular phones, especially in high end, next generation cellular phone. It seems many well-branded companies use OLED to design new phones and create different market segments.



On July 17, 2002, RiTdisplay held a product presentation in its international conference room. Many people attended this big and very successful meeting. And RiTdisplay presents its marketing strategies, technology development status and product applications. It shows again its leadership in this OLED industry worldwide.

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RiTdisplay and DuPont open PLED production line


Andy Liu, Taipei; Shih-wei Kao, DigiTimes.com [Monday 19 August 2002]


RiTdisplay and its technology provider, DuPont, together held the opening ceremony for RiTdisplay’s polymer-based organic light-emitting diode (PLED) production line in the Hsinchu Industrial District on August 16.

RiTdisplay schedules to begin volume production in the fourth quarter at the line that has a capacity of processing 30,000 370×470mm substrates monthly, according to Wang Ding Chang, the company’s CEO and president. The company plans to use the line to produce single-color, passive-matrix (PM) PLEDs initially and multi- and full-color PM PLEDs by the end of next year. RiTdisplay plans to sell PLEDs at the same price as that of OLEDs (organic light-emitting diodes) to achieve a better market penetration rate. DuPont has agreed to purchase over 80% of RiTdisplay’s PLEDs.

Furthermore, RiTdisplay also schedules to begin volume production in the fourth quarter at a color OLED production line that is capable to processing 50,000 370×470mm substrates monthly. The OLED and PLED lines, which are housed in the same building, can be interchangeably used to support each other to produce either OLEDs or PLEDs.

Finally, Wang is confident that RiTdisplay, which recently successfully developed both PM and active-matrix (AM) full-color OLEDs, can receive Eastman Kodak’s patent authorization and begin volume production of AM full-color OLEDs in the second half of 2003.



At RiTdisplay’s PLED/OLED factory: (from left to right) Wang Ding Chang; Diane H. Gulyas, group vice president of the DuPont Electronic and Communication Technologies Platform; Chet Pribonic, vice president and Walt Cheng, director, Asia-Pacific, MCM of DuPont Displays.

Related news from Society for Information Display (SID)

Related stories:

RiTdisplay reportedly receives orders for over one million mobile phone OLEDs (May 20)

RiTdisplay opens new color OLED/PLED factory (Nov 28, 2001)

RiTdisplay and DuPont Displays sign agreement to build polymer-OLED production line (May 8, 2001)

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Ritek, CMC Magnetics to kick off China production next month
Claire Sung, Taipei; Jane Wang, DigiTimes.com [Thursday 15 August 2002]


Ritek’s Kunshan plant and CMC Magnetics’ Nantong plant, both based in Jiangsu Province, China, are expected to begin production next month, said the companies.

Ritek, the world’s largest CD-R disc maker, said it will receive government approval for its Kunshan operations by the end of the month. It has begun recruiting an estimated 500 new employees, and expects initial monthly 48x CD-R production of 8 million units to reach as high as 20 million units, if all goes smoothly.

While CD-R prices have not yet warmed up, Ritek said it hopes to start production at Kunshan as soon as possible to accommodate large orders, and may consider expanding production capacity through to year-end.

In addition to attractively low costs, the two Taiwan-based CD-R disc makers have reportedly sought to set up in China to avoid tariffs on Taiwan CD-R products – 8.7% for Ritek and 39% for CMC – levied by the European Union.

[Fruehrentner]

@panik

weisst du, welchen Anteil das OLED-Geschäft in 2002 am Gesamtergbenis RITEKs einnehmen wird und welchen Anteil es in den nächsten Jahren haben wird?

Gibt RITEK Prognosen diesbezüglich ab?

Gruß
Frührentner

[panik]

Ritek revises financial forecast, expects loss this year



Claire Sung, Taipei; Chou Hua-hsin, DigiTimes.com [Thursday 22 August 2002]


Ritek, citing gigantic exchange rate-linked charges and tighter margins in compact discs, said it will post a loss instead of a profit this year.

The world’s largest CD-R disc maker said it now expects a net loss of NT$3.25 billion, or NT$1.72 a share, on sales of NT$20.32 billion. That compared with a net profit of NT$2.08 billion and sales of NT$26.31 billion announced earlier in April.

The news pushed Ritek’s stock down by the daily limit for most of the session, leaving it down NT$1.3, or 6.95%, at NT$17.4 at the close of trading.

The company blamed the profit shortfall mainly on NT$1 billion in currency exposure due to the sharp rise of NT dollar against the US dollar in the second quarter. Also eroding its profit base, Ritek said, were higher costs of plastic material used in discs, which doubled in the first half amid oil supply concerns raised by refreshed Middle East tension.

Investment losses also hurt as Ritek has lost between NT$200 and NT$300 million from two affiliates that make opto-electronic and fiber-optic components this year.

The company is facing challenges unseen for years. In a sector plagued with oversupply, Ritek was forced to hold back on plans to raise disc prices, fearing that customers would revolt and turn to competitors. The second half also has failed to deliver a widely anticipated recovery, as the global economy remains on a weak footing and slows demand for its optical discs.

Ritek’s official second-quarter and interim results are scheduled for release next week.

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Wednesday August 28, 3:20 PM
PRESS RELEASE: S&P Puts Taiwan`s Ritek On CreditWatch Neg

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PRESS RELEASE: S&P Puts Taiwan`s Ritek On CreditWatch Neg
Following is a press release from S&P:

HONG KONG (Standard & Poor`s) Aug. 28, 2002--Standard & Poor`s Ratings Services said today that it had placed its double-`B`-minus corporate credit rating and senior unsecured convertible bond rating on Ritek Corp. (Ritek) on CreditWatch with negative implications, following an announcement by the company that it had revised down its financial forecast for 2002 to a net loss of Taiwan dollar (NT$) 3.25 billion from a net profit of NT$2.1 billion.

Taiwan-based Ritek is one of the world`s largest manufacturers of compact discs-recordable (CD-Rs).

"The company`s performance has been severely hurt by the prolonged industry capacity glut and depressed pricing environment in the CD-R market," said Standard and Poor`s director, John Bailey. "Ritek`s latest earning guidance confirms that the industry condition is unlikely to improve any time soon. As a result, the company`s credit protection measures are expected to deteriorate further and remain below par for its current rating," he said.

Ritek recorded a net loss of NT$1.4 billion in the first half of 2002. Management at Ritek said that the company incurred foreign exchange losses of about NT$1 billion in the period due to the sharp depreciation of the U.S. dollar. Operating margins before depreciation and amortization should remain at about 10%-15%, but EBITDA interest coverage is expected to fall to about 1 time (x) in 2002, from more than 4x in 2001.

Standard and Poor`s will review Ritek`s future operating and financial strategies before resolving the CreditWatch listing. The review should be concluded within three weeks, and any downgrade is expected to be limited to one rating notch.

A complete list of the ratings is available to RatingsDirect subscribers at www.ratingsdirect.com, as well as on Standard & Poor`s public website at www.standardandpoors.com under Ratings Actions/Newly Released Ratings.

Contact: Tony Tsai, Taipei (8862) 2368-8277

John Bailey, Hong Kong (852) 2533-3530

Copyright 2002, Standard & Poor`s Ratings Services

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Tech Stock Focus: Taiwan Ritek Stk Haunted By High Debt
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By Frances Huang
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

TAIPEI (Dow Jones)--Investors should keep well away from optical disc maker Ritek Corp. (Q.RTK) on concerns about the company`s heavy debt and earnings outlook amid a global supply glut.

Worries about Ritek`s bottom-line are running deeper after the company last week slashed its 2002 earnings forecast to a loss of NT$3.25 billion (US$1=NT$34.230) from a previous NT$2.08 billion net profit forecast.

That puts its loss per share at NT$1.72 for 2002, compared with 2001`s reported earnings per share of NT$1.71.

Ritek, which is the largest recordable compact disc manufacturer in the world, said the cut mainly reflected slowing demand and falling CD-R prices, while the appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar has also hurt.

Worse still, analysts estimate Ritek has more than NT$40 billion in debt, resulting in a burden of NT$100 million or more in interest payments every month.

The earnings worries have sent Ritek`s share price into a tailspin, closing Thursday down 3.5% to NT$16.40. The stock has fallen 56.5% since the start of the year.

In comparison, the Taiwan Stock Exchange`s main index has fallen 13.5% from the start of the year.

And the stock may fall an additional 10% to 15% by the end of 2002, analysts said.

"The oversupply has triggered a price war in the industry. The war is escalating," said Michael Chou, an analyst with Daiwa Institute of Research in Taipei.

Monthly CD-R supply in the global market hits as much as 750 million units, but demand is only about 500 million. As a result, the unit price for CD-Rs has fallen to US$0.14-US$0.15 at the moment from a peak of US$0.60-US$0.70 in 2000, before the high tech bubble burst.

Operating Margin In Negative

Chou said since CD-Rs account for about 70% of Ritek`s total revenue, the lower prices have hurt the company a lot.

"Uncertainty over when the demand will really pick up remains in place amid the slowdown of the world high-tech sector. So, don`t touch the stock now," Chou said.

Primasis Securities analyst William Fong in Taipei agrees, saying although Ritek is trading at a big discount to its book value of about NT$28 per share, there is little chance the stock will rebound any time soon.

Yuanta Core Pacific Capital Management analyst Mike Chow in Taipei said he expects Ritek`s shares to fall by another 10% to 15% with support expected at around NT$14.

Fong said falling CD-R prices has squeezed Ritek`s profit margin badly with gross margin expected down around 9% this year, compared with about 25% a year earlier.

But taking into account the company`s operating expenses of about NT$4 billion involving marketing, research and development and royalty payments, Fong said Ritek`s operating margin is expected to plunge to minus 4.5% for this year. Operating loss in 2002 should be NT$1 billion, he predicted.

Ritek has said it expects an operating loss of NT$701 million as operating margin comes in at a negative 3.44% this year.

While Ritek has made inroads into the higher priced digital versatile disc, or DVD, business, Fong said its monthly sales about 2.5 million recordable and rewritable DVDs pales in comparison to its monthly sale of about 180 million CD-Rs.

He also tells investors to avoid the stock.

S&P Puts Ritek On CreditWatch Negative

Following Ritek`s weaker earnings forecast for 2002 last week, Standard & Poor`s Rating Services Wednesday placed its double-B minus corporate credit rating and senior unsecured convertible bond rating of the optical disc maker on CreditWatch with negative implications.

"Ritek`s latest guidance confirms the industry condition is unlikely to improve any time soon. As a result, the company`s credit protection is expected to deteriorate further and remain below par for its current rating," S&P said in a statement.

Apart from the falling CD-R price, "we also worry about Ritek`s relatively high gearing ratio of about 36%. The level is high to Ritek, which is in such a volatile industry," said Christine Kuo, an analyst with Taiwan Ratings Corp., a local partner of S&P.

According to Yuanta Core Pacific, Ritek has a total of NT$43 billion in debt taken on to help it diversify away from the CD-R business.

In the first quarter of this year Ritek`s net profit shrank to NT$81 million, from NT$642 million last year.

"The company shoulders heavy debt as the result of its business diversification. The point is that the business diversification efforts are far from paying off," Chow, of Yuanta Core Pacific, said.

Ritek has invested in advanced display panel business, such as organic light emitting diode displays, which is just an emerging industry. It has also invested in the fiber optic cable business which suffers from overcapacity throughout the world.

-By Frances Huang, Dow Jones Newswires; (8862) 2502 2557; [e-mail]

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Opto Tech to land Kodak’s PM OLED patent authorization early next month

Andy Liu, Taipei; Shih-wei Kao, DigiTimes.com [Friday 30 August 2002]


Opto Tech expects to sign a passive-matrix (PM) organic light-emitting diode (OLED) patent authorization agreement with Kodak in early September, becoming the third Taiwanese company, after RiTdisplay and Teco Optronics, to receive Kodak’s OLED patent authorization. Opto Tech will reportedly need to pay Kodak a royalty amounting to US$3.75 million, based on its OLED sales.

Under a joint research program with the Materials Research Laboratories (MRL) of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Opto Tech successfully developed 4-bit (16-grayscale-level) 2.5 and 3.3-inch PM OLEDs in red, yellow, green, blue, and white last year.

Opto Tech has sent samples to mobile phone makers both locally and overseas for approval and plans to begin PM OLED volume production either in the first or second quarter of next year. The company has built an OLED production line that processes 8,000 400×400mm substrates per month.

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CD-R disc makers ramp up China production
Jimmy Hsu, Taipei; Chou Hua-hsin, DigiTimes.com [Thursday 5 September 2002]


Taiwan’s three largest CD-R disc makers, after receiving Chinese government approval for their China facilities, are aiming to beef up monthly output to multi-million units by year-end.

Ritek is currently installing machinery for its 50 production lines planned for the Kunshan, Jiangsu Province plant, with shipments scheduled to start in the fourth quarter. Monthly output capacity will be boosted to 10 million units by then, it said.

CMC Magnetics’ factory in Nantong, Jiangsu will soon begin production at a monthly output of two million units. Though the company has received official approval to operate 50 production lines, it said it doesn’t see a pressing need to use that capacity and will go forward based on its business needs. It also expected to build monthly output in China to 10 million units by the end of the year.

Prodisc Technology, whose production is based in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, said it is speeding up plant construction to start production in October. Like Ritek and CMC, it indicated plans to grow its CD-R disc output in China to as many as 10 million units a month this year.

The disc makers, however, kept mum about their future pricing plans, which reinforces the view that a widely expected disc price increase this month may fail to materialize.

In assessing industry prospects, the companies said the market is hitting bottom this quarter and due for a rebound, citing signs of strengthening disc prices in Europe and continued efforts by distributors to cut inventory. The European Union`s upcoming ruling on India-based manufacturer Moser Baer India on dumping allegations will also help clear the cloudy industry outlook, they added.

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Monday September 9, 5:37 PM
Taiwan`s Ritek says Aug sales down 43.09 pct y/y
TAIPEI, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Taiwan`s Ritek Inc , one of the island`s two major optical disc makers, said on Monday August sales fell 43.09 percent year on year to T$1.31 billion

(US$38.5 million).

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That brought sales in the first eight months to T$13.16 billion, down 10 percent from the same period last year, the company sad in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.

The August total was also lower than July`s T$1.6 billion.

The results came after close of stock trade. On Monday, Ritek shares rose the daily seven percent limit to end at T$15.1, outperforming a 1.66 percent rise in the main TAIEX index.

(US$ = T$34.25)

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Taiwan`s RiTdisplay Corp Plans IPO Worth US$20M In 3Q `03
HSINCHU (Dow Jones)--RiTdisplay Corp. is planning a US$20 million initial public offering for the third quarter next year, company executives said Thursday.
The company plans to offer 20 million shares, or 3% of its outstanding share capital, in the IPO, Chief Financial Officer Ann H.H. Wu told reporters.

RiTdisplay, which makes organic light emitting diode, or OLED, panels, was spun off from optical storage media maker Ritek Corp. (Q.RTK) in August 2000.

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OLED panels are considered a new generation of small flat panels used in a variety of electronic products, including mobile phones and personal digital assistants. OLEDs don`t require backlight the way liquid crystal displays do and consume less power than LCDs.

RiTdisplay also plans an overseas share sale for the first quarter of 2004, said President and Chief Executive D.C. Wang.

RiTdisplay expects to raise more than US$100 million in the overseas share sale, said Wu.

The company said its sales are expected to come in between US$10 million to US$20 million in 2002, said executives.

The company is forecasting its 2003 sales at US$100 million, said Wang, adding the company is still losing money this year, but is expected to break even in the second half of next year.

Its shipments of OLED panels for mobile phones are expected to exceed one million units this year and 10 million next year, said Wang.

-By Y.H. Sun, Dow Jones Newswires; 8862-2502-2557; [e-mail]

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U-tech to see revenue boosted by blockbuster DVD movie titles
Claire Sung, Taipei; Chou Hua-hsin, DigiTimes.com [Friday 27 September 2002]


U-tech Media’s factories will run at full capacity in the coming months, driven by DVD-video orders for blockbuster titles, said company CEO Steven Chang.

With the pre-recorded media industry entering the peak season with a surge in DVD releases of hit summer movies, the disc replicator will likely see record revenue in September and October at NT$300 million each, Chang predicted.

The main revenue driver is Star Wars: Episode II, of which U-tech is currently producing nine million DVD sets for North America and five million sets for other markets. Production of new hits like Ice Age, Minority Report and Lilo & Stitch will begin production in October.

The company is seeking to sign up more record labels after its deal with Warner Bros. Records to produce DVD-audio discs for its Taiwanese pop artists, Chang said.

The executive also said he hopes to boost U-tech’s worldwide share from a current 4% to 6-8% of the estimated 2.9 billion-unit pre-recorded DVD market in 2003, without elaborating.

U-tech, a subsidiary of the world’s largest CD-R maker Ritek, is scheduled to be listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE) on October 29 at NT$42 per share.

Capitalized at NT$1.34 billion, the company expects to post a net profit of NT$404 million, or NT$3.02 a share, on revenue of NT$2.4 billion this year.

Related stories:

[51boyauswedding]

Second-tier CD-R disc makers step up prices for 2Q
Jimmy Hsu, Taipei; Sarah Chang, DigiTimes.com [Tuesday 25 March 2003]


Thanks to better-than-expected demand for the second quarter, second-tier CD-R disc makers are showing tight capacity and following first-tier competitors with their own price hikes.

Second-tier CD-R disc makers in Taiwan said they have boosted CD-R disc quote prices for May orders to match first-tier quotes at US$0.18-0.19, up from US$0.15-0.16 in March.

Sources said second-tier manufacturers Acer Media Technology, Nan Ya Plastics and Princo had already raised prices to that level for orders received at the CeBIT show in Hannover, Germany, which ended last week.

Surging demand in the seasonally weak second quarter has even induced some first-tier CD-R disc makers to outsource orders to second-tier makers, sources said.

Oversupply of CD-R discs has stopped manufacturers from expanding capacity over the past two years, which has contributed to the short capacity at present. Capacity has further tightened as top CD-R disc makers Ritek and CMC Magnetics have been shifting capacity from CD-R discs to recordable DVD discs, prompting a recovery in CD-R disc prices since the fourth quarter of last year.