South America is on TE Connectivity’s telecom radar. The company just launched a manufacturing plant for telecommunication networks located in the countryside of São Paulo state in Brazil with an equipment investment of U.S.$500,000. This will help the company’s local business achieve its goal of doubling revenue in the five-year period from 2011 to 2016.

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“The South American region is emerging, and TE Connectivity’s major focus is on emerging regions and countries, which also include China, India and eastern Europe,” Marco Antonio Folegatti, general manager for South America at TE Connectivity’s telecom networks division, told RCR Wireless News.

The local manufacturing plant is a key pillar of the company’s growth plans, since TE Connectivity will be able to customize its telecom products for the local market. “We have set an R&D group focused on developing specific products for the region,” Folegatti said.

In Brazil, TE Connectivity owns manufacturing plants for other divisions, but this is the first one dedicated to the telecom unit. The plant is 4,000 square meters and has about 50 employees currently—with plans to double that number by the 2013 fiscal year. Folegatti noted there is a small manufacturing plant for telecom equipment in Argentina, which generates about U.S.$5 million per year.

TE Connectivity’s strategy to manufacture in Brazil, Folegatti emphasized, is not new, and it is not specifically aimed at addressing Anatel’s LTE auction rules, although it will benefit the company to meet the national technology percentage requirements for the procurement of goods, products, equipment and systems for telecommunication and data networks. According to the bidding document, the percentage for the acquisition of goods and products with national technology will be 60% from 2012 to 2014, 65% from 2015 to 2016, and 70% from 2017 to 2022.

Brazil leads the company’s South American business. TE Connectivity also has offices in Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Venezuela—and from these countries, the company reaches nearby nations, such as Paraguay and Uruguay via the Argentina subsidiary.

Globally, TE Connectivity is a U.S.$14 billion company that designs and manufactures approximately 500,000 products that connect and protect the flow of power and data inside a variety of electronic products. It employs nearly 100,000 people in its five divisions: energy, automotive, telecom networks, enterprise and consumer.