Dell to expand production, assembly lines in Latin America

US tech hardware firm Dell will increase its production capacity in Latin America and bring in new product lines for regional assembly, notably PCs and servers, Luis Gonçalves, the company’s president for Latin America, told BNamericas.

The expansion will take place mainly at Dell's Hortolândia factory in Brazil. In addition to the Brazilian plant, the company also has assembly lines in Mexico, mainly to ship computers to the US market.

Last year, CEO Michael Dell announced a major investment to bring assembly from Asia to Mexico with an eye on supplying the US market.

Brazil, in turn, is the only country where Dell has a plant mainly serving the local market, according to the company. More than 90% of its local production reportedly remains in the country.

“The factory [in Hortolândia] is modernized, automated, and we have the capacity to expand. In fact, we have plans to produce more of the products in our lines domestically so that we can offer them here at local prices, with the benefits of local manufacturing,” said the executive.

These benefits refer to tax breaks granted by Brazil based on how much of a final product is assembled in the country.

Among the new products to be made locally are PCs with native AI that Dell is launching in the Latin American market, such as its first computers integrated with CoPilot and which are equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor, aimed at the corporate market.

Gonçalves is betting that AI-embedded PCs will accelerate as a general consumer product in 2025.

Going beyond PCs, Dell will also bring in new lines server assembly to meet cloud computing and data processing demands, he said.

In 2023, the company starte3d producing its latest storage line, PowerFlex, in Brazil, targeting multi-cloud environments.

Modernization

Dell’s plant in Hortolândia is currently powered with edge computing, visual computing and advanced robotics technologies provided by partner companies.

“Although the factory uses the same square meter, it has modernized a lot in terms of utilization, productivity and implementation of technologies,” Gonçalves said.

Autonomous robots connected via a dedicated network carry boxes and products from one place to another to restock inventory, he added. 

These connections are established via a cable network and advanced Wi-Fi, but Dell is also testing private 5G in partnership with a local operator, although Gonçalves declined to reveal which one.