While CMC magnetics plans to hike blank CD-R and DVD±R prices by 10% on average in August, according to the company chairman Robert Wong, this will barely offset the recent production cost increases.  Due to price-cut competition between small Chinese and Taiwanese makers, this has resulted in smaller OEM quotes.  As a result, CMC now plans to apply a further price hike in the 4th quarter.

So far, CMC is still evaluating how much to increase the prices by in the 4th quarter.  The manufacturer has already suffered a significant operating loss in the first half of this year and may end up with another small loss in the second half.  However, if the second price hike is set right, the company may be able to break even by the end of the year and hopefully make profit again in 2009. 

CMC is still conservative on investing in Blu-ray, mainly due to the high royalty fees associated with Blu-ray.  However, the company predicts that 2009 may be a turning point for Blu-ray.