Lite-On IT, Taiwan's largest manufacturer of optical disc drives, expects to ship 8 million DVD burners this year, which would make it the world's second leading producer for 2004, according to company president Danny Liao at an institutional investor conference on April 29.

Lite-On IT delivered fewer than one million DVD burners last year, ranking 10th globally. However, during the first quarter of this year the company shipped one million DVD burners, jumping up to the fourth position, behind Hitachi-LG Data Storage (HLDS), Pioneer and NEC, Lite-On IT Optical Disc Drive Business general manager Michael Gong indicated.

Next quarter, Lite-On IT will begin production of slim-type DVD burners, as well as offering 16x DVD burners, so the company has revised its shipment goal for this year to eight million units, up from the original four million target, Gong noted. By achieving the new shipment goal, Lite-On IT expects to surpass NEC and Pioneer and move into second place in global shipments, Gong added.

Lite-On IT also produces DVD recorders and will offer new models equipped with hard disks next quarter, Liao indicated. The company expects to ship one million DVD recorders this year, Liao said.

The product lineup from Lite-On IT can be broken down into old products and new products. Old product lines consist of CD-ROM, CD-RW, DVD-ROM and HH (half-height) combo drives, while the new product lines feature slim combo and DVD+RW/-RW burner drives, and DVD recorders. Because the market moves so quickly, slim combo drives will fall into the old product category next quarter.