According to DigiTimes, Futean International, a subsidiary of Ritek, is currently establishing a plant in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province (China), to produce CD-R and DVD-R/+R discs specifically for sale in China under the Ritek brand , according to Yung-nam Chang, the president of Futean.

The plant will have an initial monthly capacity of 20 million CD-R and DVD-R/+R discs in total, and Futean will begin volume production in the second quarter of 2005, Chang indicated.

Chang is also currently the president of Hutek Corporation, another Ritek subsidiary located in Kunshan, which manufactures optical discs. Hutek currently has a monthly production capacity of 30 million CD-R discs and 2 million DVD-R/+R discs, with output mainly for the export market.

In August, China canceled its requirement that foreign investment in the production of optical discs for domestic sale needs to be in the form of a joint venture, so Taiwan makers can now set up wholly owned subsidiaries to sell optical discs in the China market.

For DVD-R/+R discs, China-based makers are currently unable to compete with first-tier Taiwan makers on technology and production scale, Chang pointed out. Top DVD-R/+R disc makers in China, such as Hangzhou Nature Opto-electronic Technology and Tsinghua Tongfang Optical Disc (TTOD), generally introduce products in volume six months after their Taiwan rivals.