Chinese TV Maker MTC to Invest USD38 Million in Mexican Plant to Boost North American Market Resilience(Yicai) Aug. 21 -- Shenzhen MTC, a Chinese original design manufacturer of televisions, plans to invest USD38.3 Million to build a new factory in Mexico to strengthen its ability to cope with a complex international trade landscape and solidify partnerships with key North American clients.
The plant will be located in Tijuana, and it will be operated under Mexico’s IMMEX Shelter Program, the Shenzhen-based firm announced yesterday. The investment amount will cover plant leasing, renovation, and production equipment procurement, MTC added, without revealing any further details.
Under Mexico’s IMMEX Shelter model, foreign investors cooperate with local service providers to speed up project roll-out. Local partners with export manufacturing qualifications handle compliance matters, including tax, labor, and customs, while foreign investors focus on production and technical management.
The project, which follows the successful completion and commissioning of MTC’s Vietnamese plant, will help the company respond to overseas client demand more efficiently, optimize its overseas capacity layout, and enhance global delivery responsiveness, MTC noted.
MTC shipped more than 5.6 million TV sets in the first half of the year, ranking among the ODM industry’s top three players, according to data from Beijing Runto Technology. Its core clients include Walmart’s brands Onn and Vizio.
MTC also released its semiannual earnings report yesterday. Revenue rose 8.2 percent to CNY9.2 billion (USD1.4 billion) in the first half from a year earlier, with revenue from audio-visual products and services, including TVs, accounting for nearly 69 percent of the total.
Meanwhile, its net profit narrowed 41 percent to CNY391 million (USD58.2 million), mainly because of higher spending on overseas factories and book-recorded foreign exchange losses totaling CNY111 million.
MTC’s shares [SHE: 002429]. were trading down 0.8 percent at CNY8.25 (USD1.22) as of 2.20 p.m. in Shenzhen today, after earlier plunging as much as 5.7 percent.
Editor: Futura Costaglione
