At a recent BDA press conference in Beijing, Sony DADC announced the start of Blu-ray Disc production in China and Australia. According to the group’s president, Dieter Daum, facility expansion at the Shanghai production site is nearing completion and production start is scheduled for mid-December 2008 (pictured).

At the Sydney site, BD replication is scheduled to start in February 2009. The sites will offer replication of both BD25 and BD50.

To meet the growing demand for Blu-ray products and services, Sony DADC is now expanding its strategic investment in the dynamic Asian market, in particular ramping up its BD manufacturing capacity in China and Australia. “China represents a massive and strategically important market and our investments are intended to support Blu-ray’s establishment in this territory,” comments Daum.

The production floor space of the Chinese site will be expanded to 13,000m2, the floor space of the Australian site will be expanded from 12,150m2 to 13,500m2. “Our stage one goal is to reach a monthly BD25 and BD50 production capacity of 500,000 units in Shanghai by December and a monthly production capacity of 1,000,000 units in Sydney by February. Further Blu-ray Disc production lines will be installed as needed” Daum adds.

Since production started in 2006, Sony DADC has shipped around 100 million Blu-ray Video Discs to the global market.

Story filed 24.07.08