Chinese home appliance giant bullish on LatAm market

The Latin American market has great business potential and a bright prospect for development, the head of one of China's leading home appliance firms said Wednesday.

That was why "TCL will continue to actively implement the Chinese government's strategy of encouraging private businesses to 'go global' and vigorously develop the Latin American market to step up the pace of internationalization," Li Dongsheng, founder and CEO of the TCL Corporation, told Xinhua.

Three of TCL's product lines, including cellphones, home appliances and audio-visual products such as TV sets, stereo and DVD players, have obtained a significant market share in Latin America after years of hard work, said Li, who is taking part in the first ever China Sourcing Fair in Brazil's largest city of Sao Paulo.

In 2011, TCL achieved up to 5 billion yuan (800 million U.S. dollars) of sales in Latin America, seeing particularly rapid growth in Brazil, where it sold more than 3 million cellphones and over 700,000 TV sets.

Li credited the success to the rich resources and good economic foundations of Latin American countries and a significant amount of groundwork conducted by TCL.

Despite the impact of the global financial crisis in recent years and fierce competition from South Korean products, TCL has still managed to maintain a steady growth in Latin America and obtain bigger profits than in any other regions, he said.

Li said he was confident of TCL's prospects in Latin America.

The company's sales in the region will reach 6 billion yuan (970 million dollars) this year.

The three-day China Sourcing Fair, which opened Wednesday, attracted more than 400 Chinese businesses, featuring four major categories of products -- electronics, gifts, clothing and textiles, and hardware and construction materials.