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28 Aug 08:
Deere to expand
in Brazil
Chicago Tribune staff reporter
Deere & Co., moving to bolster its production in its fastest-growing
offshore market, said Thursday that it will spend $80 million to
expand capacity at its farm-equipment manufacturing operations in
Brazil.
As the world's leading maker of agricultural equipment, the Moline
manufacturer has been a beneficiary of the farm sector's worldwide
boom.
A combination of factors, including the adoption of western-style
diets in more parts of the world and the ethanol-fuel program in the
U.S., has driven grain prices sky-high around the globe. That has
generated big profits for farmers, spurred increased planting -- and
in turn generated demand for Deere's tractors and combines. Deere
has big factories in the U.S. heartland, but it also produces
equipment in other parts of the world, and sales are currently very
strong to farmers in places like Russia and South America.
"South America is an important market for John Deere," noted a Deere
official, and the enhanced capacity the company expects to bring
online in 2009 will allow Deere to "continue to enhance our market
position" in the key market.
The investments will boost output at the company's planter factory
in Belo Horizonte, Brazil; as well as its tractor factory in
Montenegro.
It will also create a parts-distribution center to serve the
company's expanding network of Deere dealers in Brazil and elsewhere
in South America.
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