TDK to drop CDr and DVDr manufacture

In an interesting product direction shift TDK have plans to drop CDR and DVDr production ( from One to One online) in order to concentrate on newer upcoming technologies
As part of a fundamental restructuring of its recording media business, TDK Corporation is to exit the recordable CD and DVD manufacturing market. The company says it will concentrate its efforts on Blu-ray media and tape storage.

TDK will accelerate its outsourcing of the manufacture of recordable CD and DVD to partner companies, to which it has given access to its technology and media codes. On the optical disc side of the business, TDK will concentrate its own efforts on developing blue-laser media: research and development activities will continue, and manufacturing will take place, at its Tecno plant in Chikumagawa, Japan, where pilot production lines have been established. TDK will also develop its activities in the data storage tape product area, which it describes as another core business.

As a consequence of this announcement, TDK Recording Media Europe is to cease production at its Luxembourg facility; production at Luxembourg is expected to shut down at the end of May. At the time of the announcement, TDK Recording Media Europe had 431 employees, and capacity for 7 million CD-R and 8 million DVDR per month. As well as manufacturing, it also had logistics and head office functions. Around 40 employees are expected to be retained in areas including procurement, product sourcing and customer services.

Jean-Paul Eekhout, corporate strategy director for TDK Europe, told One to One that some capacity will be retained in Luxembourg for minor products, such as 8cm discs. This completes TDK’s withdrawal from recordable CD and DVD manufacturing.

At the end of last year, it announced the closure of its mass production plant in Chikumagawa and the transfer of engineering facilities and Blu-ray disc development to the Tecno plant in the same area. The corporation estimates the costs associated with its withdrawal from manufacturing at 8 billion yen (€56 million).

Further information can be seen at www.tdk.com