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After the increase in tariffs and with trap, Samsung will manufacture laptops in the country

2023-05-10T10:56:00.942Z

Highlights: The Korean brand seeks to keep 20% of the market with medium and high-end models. Samsung's return to the market (they had a marginal presence between 2013 and 2014) comes after the recent tariff hike of 16% on finished laptops. Samsung believes that the Argentine market "is technologically behind" with respect to other countries in the region, which represents an opportunity to compete with leading brands. The strategy for Argentina is more ambitious and includes "two years of very aggressive promotions, with financing plans in 12 installments"


The Korean brand seeks to keep 20% of the market with medium and high-end models.


In a context of high complexity due to the clamp on imports and the shortage of dollars, Samsung will begin to manufacture notebooks in Argentina through Mirgor, its local partner. In this way, the Korean brand gets fully into a business led by the Chinese Lenovo and the North American Dell and Hewlett Packard, which concentrate 70% of sales. The company plans to initially launch three models of medium and high range in the second half of July and plan to ship in the last half of the year about 40,000 units.

"We have a very aggressive plan to try to conquer 20% of the market," says Rodolfo Romeo, director of Mobile Business at Samsung. The senior executive also explained that the new product line (Galaxy Book3 Ultra, Book3 Pro 360 and Book3 Pro) are all state-of-the-art and will have an average ticket of $ 550,000, a figure subject to the evolution of the exchange rate. "Comparatively and to the tourist dollar, they will cost between 10 and 15% less than in other markets," he concluded.

Samsung's return to the market (they had a marginal presence between 2013 and 2014) comes after the recent tariff hike of 16% on finished laptops. The measure, which took effect on March 15, mainly affects international brands, which do not assemble their products in the country. And all within a framework of the hardening of the obstacles to import, which complicates the entire electronics industry.

An IDC report based on Customs data indicates that in the first quarter 113,000 mobile computers entered the country, which represents a 68% drop compared to the same period of 2022, when a ceiling of 360,000 units had been touched. "To find such a low figure, you have to go back to 2014, without counting 2020, the year in which very few teams entered due to the beginning of the pandemic," says Sebastián Novoa, an analyst at that consultancy. Samsung believes that the Argentine market "is technologically behind" with respect to other countries in the region, which represents an opportunity to compete with leading brands.

In 2022, almost 800,000 notebooks were imported (787,948, according to IDC). Samsung had been analyzing entering the business for 4 years, but the project was delayed first by successive devaluations and difficulties to import. Now, the Korean giant aspires to occupy the top positions in the category, as is the case with cell phones, tablets and televisions.

Galaxy Book3 Ultra, the high-end notebook that Samsung will launch in Argentina in July.

Romeo highlights another curiosity. "Samsung sells laptops only in 11 countries and in the region, it only sells laptops in Brazil and Chile," he says. Its main markets are Korea (where its parent company is based), the United States, England and Germany. In Brazil, for example, it has an 11.5% share, according to IDC data. The strategy for Argentina is more ambitious and includes "two years of very aggressive promotions, with financing plans in 12 installments and some more in the most expensive models," Romeo said.

Mirgor had his sights set on the possibility of assembling notebooks at his new plant in Escobar. The fueguino group, historical ally of Samsung and Toyota, inaugurated it in December last year. There are currently 180 employees working there, producing tablets and electronic components for cars, among other things. These days they added a new line to assemble laptops for the Korean brand.

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Source: clarin

All business articles on 2023-05-10

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