Japanese electronics and high-tech giant Sony will boost its annual output capacity of DVD players by 60 percent in order to improve price competitiveness, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper said on Sunday.

Citing company sources, the paper said Sony, which accounted for 25 percent of the 16 million DVD units sold worldwide last year, will raise its annual output capacity of DVD players to seven million units. The increase will help enhance Sony's price-competitiveness at a time when DVD players are gaining popularity in Japan, the United States, and Europe, the business daily said, adding that prices of DVD players are estimated to fall 30 percent in the 2001/02 business year that began in April.

The rise in output capacity will be achieved mainly by increasing production capabilities at a production facility in Malaysia that accounted for 60 percent of Sony's DVD player production last year, Nihon Keizai said. Output capacity at the Malaysian facility will be increased by 70 percent this year, the paper said. Sony also produces DVD players in Chiba prefecture in eastern Japan and Mexico