HTC Launches Outsourced Mobile Production

Taiwanese cell phone manufacturer High Technology Corp (HTC) has launched its first outsourced production program, through the Brazilian facilities of Canadian electronics manufacturer Celestica, local financial paper Valor Economico reported.

Celestica's factory in Campinas, Sao Paulo state, will produce HTC handsets for Brazil as well as neighboring markets, HTC's Latin America director Cesar Keller said in the report.

The operation began with a pilot program last October and is the first example of HTC producing goods outside of Taiwan or China.

Of the nine models HTC has targeted for Latin America, seven are already made in Brazil. The initial focus will be on supplying handsets for Brazil, with exportation starting in 2008.

HTC specializes in smartphones based on the Windows Mobile operating system and Keller believes this category of telephone accounted for 1% of the 30mn mobile handsets sold in Latin America in 2006. The executive expects smartphones to account for 1.5-2% of Latin American handset sales this year and 3-4% in 2008.

"In the global context, our manufacturing strategy is not moving towards outsourcing, but in Latin America we thought it made more sense to do it this way," Keller said in the report.

HTC handsets are marketed in Brazil under the brand name QTek. The firm's global sales for fiscal year 2006 were US$3.2bn.

Posted to the site on 3rd October 2007