EMC announces equipment production in Brazil
Valor Econômico - 05/07/2008
After three years of discussions with the Government and much speculation in the technology market, the American EMC finally announced the manufacturing of some of its equipment used to storage data in the country. The Brazilian production will be in charge of Celestica, a Canadian multinational company specialized in outsourcing the manufacturing of IT equipment. The companies did not publish the amount of the investment. Celestica, in Brazil for eight years now, is responsible for the production of IT components and cellular phones for companies like Kennex, HTC, and Palm. Its whole production is concentrated in Campinas (SP), where the EMC equipments will be produced. In the last months, as informed by the companies, employees from Celestica underwent training as well as a series of tests in EMC's production units in the USA. At the end of March, the Brazilian government gave EMC the registration of Basic Productive Process (PPB, after its acronym in Portuguese) for the manufacturing of the storage equipment. The PPB foresees tax exemption for companies that assembly equipment in the country, as long as some of their components are locally produced. With the nationalization, the price of the products of the subsidiary will decrease nearly 10%, said EMC's general manager in Brazil Carlos Cunha. According EMC's global vice-president for storage products, Joel Schwartz, the initiative represents "a new beginning" in the country. EMC opened its first office in Brazil in 1996, with five employees then. Until 2002, it sold products directly, without the support of intermediate companies. In 2003, it began betting in the partnership with distribution channels and specialized dealers. Today, half of its sales in the country come from those partnerships. With 300 direct employees, EMC Brazil closed last year with more than 1 thousand clients in the country. The production agreement made with Celestica is not the first one. The companies already work together in Asian and East European countries. At the same time, EMC made a partnership with the Instituto Eldorado, also from Campinas, to support system development in the areas of open-code software and of IT resources management. The first product that EMC will produce in the country is the ClariiOn line. The equipment - basically formed by a rack where dozens of high capacity storage discs are installed - will have four versions. The price will depend on the final configuration, but a most popular version has an entry price around US$ 10 thousand, says Carlos Cunha.