Taiwan-based Ritek has maintained the number one position in the recordable DVD disc market since the second half of last year, seizing a global market share of about 30%, according to the company. Quoting data from market research firm Fujiwara-Rothchild, Ritek said it took a 30.9% global market share in rewritable DVD discs and 28% in write-once DVD discs in the first quarter of 2003.

Japan-based Ricoh recently approved Ritek’s 4x DVD+RW discs, following its validation of Ritek’s 4x DVD+R discs, Ritek said. In addition, Ritek was the first Taiwanese optical storage disc maker to submit a request for approval of 8x DVD-R discs to the DVD Forum Working Group-6 (WG6), a DVD Forum group responsible for the DVD-R/RW specifications, the Taiwanese company said.

Ritek’s monthly DVD disc capacity is about 10 million units, among which about 85-90% are write-once discs, while the remainder are rewritable ones, said the company, which plans to double its DVD capacity by year-end. Ritek does not produce read-only DVD discs.