Lite-On of Taiwan to Triple SSD Capacity in 2013

Taipei, Dec.19, 2012 (CENS)--Taiwan's largest CD-ROM maker Lite-On IT Corp. is aggressively expanding its solid state disc (SSD) business, and will invest NT$2~3 billion (US$66.67~100 million) to triple SSD production capacity in 2013, with SSD sales contributing over 10% of the maker's total revenues in 2012, and the maker aiming to raise it to 20% in 2013.

Lite-On's CEO S.F. Liao indicated that CD-ROM accounted for 70% of the firm's revenues, but to be reduced to 30% by 2015.

Institutional investors estimates Lite-On's revenues in 2012 to remain similar with 2011, but likely to surge to NT$65 billion (US$2.17 billion) by 2015 due to growing shipments of SSDs and automotive wireless chargers. Liao noted that Lite-On's SSDs are mainly applied in commercial NBs but are expected to expand to servers and tablet PCs in 2013. The firm saw its global market share of SSD exceed 14% this year to become the world's third largest supplier.

Besides, Liao said that Lite-On will exclusively supply wireless chargers for more than 10 car models in 2013 in North America.

Due to decreasing orders for CD-ROMs, institutional investors predict that Lite-On's revenues in 2012 will barely exceed NT$50 billion (US$1.67 billion), ending the two years of historic highs with 17% YoY decline. Despite encouraging sales of SSDs, the firm's revenues in 2013 are expected to remain similar with 2012 due to shrinking CD-ROM business.