As Japan-based makers including Sony, Sharp and TDK have been shifting their focus of blank Blu-ray Disc (BD) disc production from 25GB BD-R (recordable, write once) and BD-RE (rewritable) to 3- and 4-layer BDXL, Taiwan-based CMC Magnetics and Ritek together are expected to surpass their Japan competitors in production volume of BD-R and BD-RE at the end of 2010, according to industry sources.

CMC and Ritek have expanded their 25GB BD-R production capacities in expectation of growing global demand, the sources said. In addition, Ritek is poised to start volume production of 50GB double-layer BD-R discs as soon as the end of 2010 and aims at a global market share of 10% in 2011, the sources indicated.