CommScope looks to expand local production in LatAm

CommScope is retargeting the development of its products for a more tailored Latin America approach, which includes enrolling partners to expand local manufacturing of its equipment, the US infrastructure solutions provider's LatAm sales VP Marcos Takanohashi told BNamericas.

As the first step in that direction, CommScope set in motion its Plano Brasil (Brasil plan) and entered into a partnership with Brazilian original equipment manufacturer Infortel Telecom for the development and local production of solutions for fiber-to-the-home networks.

“They're going to develop the product for us, work with our brand, and we're going to do the go-to-market,” Takanohashi said on the sidelines of the Futurecom conference in São Paulo.

First products under the partnership are due to leave the factory in the first quarter of 2023, according to the VP.

Infortel is a small, family-owned company. Among the products it manufactures are splicing boxes and splitters.

Such alliances are seen as key for CommScope to serve clients in the most customized way possible and at the same time offer more competitive pricing.

“The fact that we develop the product locally, customized to the reality and specific demands of the customers, makes a big difference. In addition, we also get, of course, tax exemptions [from import duties]. The main thing is not the production, but rather local development, design.”

According to Takanohashi, similar partnerships with OEMs in Argentina, Peru, Colombia or Chile are being mulled, but not necessarily for the same products.

CommScope has a factory in Vargem Grande Paulista, in São Paulo’s metropolitan region, where it already manufactures certain electronic products and solutions, though not the ones to be made by Infortel. Those are currently made in Mexico, Europe and China.

In Latin America, in addition to Brazil the company has manufacturing sites in Ciudad Juárez, Delicias, Reynosa and Tijuana in Mexico, a technology and innovation center in Monterrey, and sales facilities in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina.

COUNTER-OFFENSIVE

Expanding, customizing and reducing prices of outdoor wireless networks, connected home and FTTH equipment, as well as next-generation FTTX network ecosystems, is also a response to increasingly intense Asian competition in Latin America.

For its own products, CommScope is betting on the Mosaic antenna platform, which combines active and passive technologies to modernize 4G infrastructures and add 5G mobile telephony capabilities.

Another bet is on the PowerShift product family, designed to power current and future networks for macro and small cells.

CommScope NEXT

In 2021, CommScope announced a major transformation drive called CommScope NEXT aimed at driving shareholder value through three pillars: profitable growth, operational efficiency and portfolio optimization. 

As a step toward optimizing its portfolio through NEXT, in January this year the company reorganized its internal management and reporting structure “to align its portfolio of products and solutions more closely with the markets it serves and bring better performance clarity with its competitive peer set,” it said.

With respect to components, CommScope expects the global supply chain challenges and their adverse impact on its business and financial results to ease, although certain shortages are likely to continue for the remainder of 2022 and into 2023.

The group reported global net sales of US$2.3bn in Q2, up 5.3% year-over-year. 

Core net sales increased by 8.5%, primarily due to higher net sales in the connectivity and cable solutions and outdoor wireless networks segments.

Latin America and the Caribbean accounted for roughly 7% of global net sales in the quarter, or US$150mn, down 21% year-over-year.

The company will release its Q3 results on November 3.