Lasse Penttinen
28 May 2002 12:57
Talk about déjà vu! It was in the May 2001 when were reading news about increasing CD-R prices. PC World even tried to scare us with tripling prices back in the 2001. And if I recollect correctly the summer 2001 wasn’t the first time that increasing CD-R prices were predicted.
I personally didn’t see anything significant happening to CD-R prices here in Finland and I don’t think that there were any drastic changes in other market areas either. Of course the price increases by the manufacturers may have affected the profit markets somewhere in the value chain, but the shop shelf prices have been steady or declining. I don’t think that there is need to stockpile at this time either.
Taiwan’s optical disc manufacturers are rolling out long-anticipated price increases in CD-R discs. Per-unit contract prices of blank discs for June are up by roughly US$0.02 at top-tier manufacturers, while those at the small-to-medium disc makers average US$0.015.
First-tier companies Ritek, CMC Magnetics and Prodisc Technology, which focus on high-speed disc products, have marked up June contract prices by US$0.02 to US$0.025, or a 5-10% rise. Unit quotes for their 40x and 48x CD-R discs currently range from US$0.18 to US$0.22
The price adjustments are being made amid rising prices of polycarbonate, the key plastic material used in CD-R substrate. However, industry sources said they also reflect the higher price points of high-speed discs, which are becoming the industry standard as major disc makers convert their lines to produce 48x discs.
Digitimes