Singulus Technologies announced that its optical disc division expects to sell between 45 to 50 Blu-ray Disc (BD) replication systems in 2011.
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Unedited press release follows:
SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES reports significant Growth in Blu-ray Market
October 25, 2011
• Global Blu-ray disc demand growing at double-digit rates
• Order intake for Blu-ray as of September 30, 2011 significantly higher than in 2010
• More Blu-ray machines sold in 2011 than in 2010
Kahl am Main, October 24, 2011 – The SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES AG (SINGULUS) reports increasing sales and earnings figures for the optical discs production equipment business area. SINGULUS was able to record significantly more orders – especially in the Blu-ray disc growth market – therefore marking a continual positive development in the Optical Disc division. Long-time customers continue to invest in the production of Blu-ray discs. In terms of sales of Blu-ray machines, SINGULUS is within the range of its own full-year forecast and projects 45 to 50 new machine orders for the full-year. The continuous growing number of orders underlines the technologic leadership of SINGULUS’ production and replication lines for 50 GB Blu-ray discs and confirms the expected growth in this segment.
In the coming years SINGULUS expects significant growth in demand for Blu-ray discs. According to the German Association of Audiovisual Media, for the high-definition format exceeded the triple-digit million Euro mark for the first time in Germany with Blu-ray sales of € 104 million (€ 82 million in 2010) in the first half of 2011. Currently, more than every sixth Euro of sales is generated with sales of Blu-ray discs. Since most of the new movies like the new Harry Potter in 2D and 3D, the Star Wars Saga, X-Factor for example and many more are only released in the second half of 2011, SINGULUS projects a further increase of Blu-ray sales figures in the next couple of months. More than 5,500 movies are currently available on Blu-ray disc in Germany (source: http://www.bluray-disc.de); by the end of the year, a further 849 Blu-ray discs are due to be released.
Europe is slowly closing the gap to the US Blu-ray growth market
The US is currently the biggest sales market for Blu-ray discs. According to studies of Digital Entertainment Group (USA), the sales figures in the US Blu-ray market grew by 10 % in the first half-year of 2011 compared with the same period one year ago. Futuresource Consulting forecasts a global production of 811 million Blu-ray discs in 2011 – an increase of 38 % compared with 2010. In the US, the biggest Blu-ray market, the production volume is even set to expand by 49 %. Similar growth figures are projected for Europe in 2011. In addition, the market research institute expects the minimum required global production capacity of machines for the manufacturing of Blu-ray discs to grow from about 1.274 billion discs in 2010 to 1.736 billion discs in 2011. Futuresource expects 2.952 billion discs by 2015.
Profile SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES AG:
SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES continues to expand its activities in the segments Solar and Optical Disc. The goal is to attain a leading position in the silicon and thin-film solar technology as a machine supplier as well as a development partner for new cell concepts and to further extend the technologic leadership in the Optical Disc segment. In the past couple of months SINGULUS has noticed increased activities in the area of MRAM memory by large semiconductor companies. SINGULUS expects that the development of MRAM memory will advance further. SINGULUS’ vacuum coating machine TIMARIS is already being utilized by customers to research MRAM wafers. SINGULUS believes that it is in an exceptional starting position for the upcoming growth market of MRAM memory. The company is also reviewing other sectors and work areas for which new market segments can be developed on the basis of the present know-how in the area of vacuum coating.