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Start hoarding media now! Oil forces 10% DVD±R price rise
Posted by Dan Bell on 16 June 2005 - 14:39 - Source: The Channel Register


Here we have a short article over at the Channel Register, that says media prices are going up and oil is to blame. Just like everything it seems, our beloved media has close ties to the petroleum that is getting harder to find these days or at least is getting harder to buy! What happened to those corn oil discs?

At issue is the cost of optical-grade polycarbonate, the material used to protect the data-storage layers within DVD+R and DVD-R discs. The material's average price dropped to around $3.2 per kg back in April, DigiTimes notes, but now prices are rising again, reaching the previous record-high, $3.5 per kg, as crude prices have escalated. This year has seen already seen oil prices reach record highs.

That is forcing disc makers to up their own prices, with Taiwanese manufacturers now planning increases of around ten per cent during Q3, local sources claim, according to the report. Last year, aggressive competition forced them to absorbed a 20 per cent increase in material costs, again driven by rising oil prices.


You can check out the rest of this news over at the Reg. Although 10% is not a great leap in price, it is important to note that oil is so much a part of our lives. I often marvel at the fact, that 100 years ago, there was not even a single car, or at least very few, and now look at how our world and lives have changed! Sure it's better than horses and the mess they leave I guess, but we need to start seeing other alternatives and get this monkey off our back before it is too late. Kudos to Sanyo for the corn oil disc idea, we need more such innovation. Sanyo can make a 4.7 inch disc with just 85 corn kernels, so they figure an ear of corn can produce enough polymer for aproximately ten discs!

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