China Tech News reports on Haier’s new partnership to distribute its computers internationally:

Haier Group has signed a global selling agreement with Ingram Micro, one of the largest IT distributors in the world, to initiate its overseas expansion in 2008.

The agreement is said to involve about 400,000 computers worth a total of US$250 million.

The article continues with some data on Haier’s performance in the PC market in China:

Because of its huge investment in computer business in recent years, Haier Computer has climbed to rank fourth in the Chinese-made computer market within two years. Haier Group estimates that its computer sales will reach 1.6 million this year with China being the main market, and double in 2008 with overseas market as the key market.

Note that it says Chinese-made, Haier is still a second-tier PC vendor in China.

This is not Haier Computer’s first international initiative. They have been selling in Korea for a couple of years.

The deal was signed with Ingram-Micro’s (IM) China operations on behalf of all of IM. Haier, in its white goods/appliances business, has been quite successful internationally. They are smart to realize that selling refrigerators is not quite the same as selling PCs. IM will bring them to a lot of new, international markets, particularly the US. Too bad it’s just in time for at best a slowdown or at worst a recession in the US.

Haier has set an ambitious target. Doubling their sales in a year via overseas growth is a great idea, but just because IM is distributing their computers doesn’t guarantee anyone is going to buy them.

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