Set-top boxes for TVs, televisions and photovoltaic solutions: How does the blockade affect the Cuban electronics industry?

Dinella GarcĂ­a Acosta, Abel PadrĂłn Padilla

June 11, 2021

Assembly area of ​​the Camilo Cienfuegos Electronic Company. Photo: Abel PadrĂłn Padilla / Cubadebate.

At a company near Boyeros in Havana, televisions are now being assembled for the classrooms of thousands of Cuban schools. 30 people work at the same time on an assembly line. In the world there could be only 15 or even 10. But the blockade, a policy imposed 60 years ago , prevents access to new technologies that would automate this production.

The UEB Producciones ElectromĂ©sticas television workshop has the capacity to assemble, daily and manually, 500 LCD televisions, which could be 700 or 800 , if the technology had been updated.

The effects on Cuban industry -from April 1 to December 31, 2020- due to the economic, commercial and financial blockade of the US government amount to more than 31,000,000 US dollars for different causes, including the geographic relocation of the trade, which causes the immobilization of inventories and increases the cost of the product.

“Freight and the search for alternative routes make the final product more expensive. If there were no blockage, the cost of TV and a box would go down ”, exemplified Lázaro Jim Campas MartĂ­nez, director of the UEB.

Assembly area of ​​the Camilo Cienfuegos Electronic Company. Photo: Abel PadrĂłn Padilla / Cubadebate.

In this sense, Edel GĂłmez, director of the company Industria ElectrĂłnica, specified that they have capacities to produce more than 100,000 televisions a year, but “as a result of the impossibility of acquiring raw materials, we produce less.” This is a reality that encompasses “all Cuban electronic products.” Cuba does not have access to modern technologies that exist, not on the other side of the world, but right here in America.

Technicians are constantly looking for alternatives and solutions. One of them are alliances with universities, such as Marta Abreu in Villa Clara, which develops the Cuban Android boxes. Likewise, with the University of Informatics Sciences (UCI) and Xetid. According to Campas MartĂ­nez, inventiveness and wisdom have had to be resorted to. For example, the assembly line for LCD televisions, which is now 22 years old, has been adequate with Cuban products. However, inventiveness implies an increase in jobs, which makes production more expensive.

In a tour of the electronics company, Cubadebate also learned about the photovoltaic solutions that the industry is looking for. Right now, they are beginning to venture with imported tractors that are loaded in solineras and will be acquired by the Ministry of Agriculture for sale in the Wholesale Agricultural Supplies company.

Regarding the production of decoder boxes for TV, the director of the UEB reported that out of a plan of 318,000 units

“we have produced just over 95,000 already delivered for sale”, for which –he assured- “we believe that the plan of the year can be fulfilled ”.

In numbers, what are the effects of the blockade?

Press conference at the Camilo Cienfuegos Electronic Company. Photo: Abel PadrĂłn Padilla / Cubadebate.

  • Income lost from exports of goods and services: 672,300 USD
  • Geographic relocation (Prices, Freight and Insurance, Inventories) : 10,827,700 USD
  • Monetary and financial impacts: 19,000 659 USD

Behind these numbers is the impossibility of conducting financial transactions using the US dollar as the payment currency . This causes the business system to have access to financing with interest rates around 18%. Without the possibility of direct access to bank loans, the solution is then to set up operations with commercial loans, but this represents higher financial costs.

One of the greatest effects is palpable in the income not received from exports. For example, one of the main exportable rubles is carbon steel billet. If exported to the US market, the industry would receive USD 10 per tonne more than in other markets.

Another could be reality. As Industry executives explained at a press conference, “there is a latent interest in the North American business community to have a presence in the Cuban market. After 17D there were almost 30 entrepreneurs interested in having joint businesses and developing projects with the Cuban industry ”.

Not only that, Cuba could acquire raw materials just a few miles away that it must go to buy thousands of kilometers away. For example, chlorine cylinders, a product that during the reopening of trade between the United States and Cuba was in the sights of many northern businessmen who wanted to sell them to the island. That interest was finally truncated with the arrival of the Trump administration. .

But what happens when some of our technologies date from before the Triumph of the Revolution? This is the case of two Cuban rubber companies, which have 90% North American equipment. This means that Cuban technicians and professionals have to be constantly on the lookout for solutions, “inventions” and adaptations that carry sweat and tears.

Among the stories, the project of five Cuban artificial respirators stands out, delayed in time and cost due to the need to import only two pieces: the motor and the electrical sensor. Two pieces that would save human lives and a politics that does not believe in life.

Not being enough with this situation, sometimes it is not enough to have a supplier or buyer from a third country. Many times these are sanctioned and you have to go out and look for new contracts.

In July 2020 scrap metal exports were interrupted with the container ready to leave at the port, as the foreign client’s bank canceled the operation with Cuba.

Lack of availability of containers and late arrival of ships are also key in a network that is becoming more complex every day.

” This service is not available in your country “, is almost the constant that Cuban professionals face when accessing forums and knowledge on the web, keys to negotiations and their improvement. Cuba cannot access, for example, certain technical information, updated price lists or catalogs that allow exploring supplies from markets.

What if we had no blockage?

  • The Cuban Industrial Gas company would have a much higher storage capacity.
  • Foreign investment could be boosted from the introduction of technologies.
  • It would be bought cheaper and closer.
  • Cuba would have the possibility of working with companies in the Latin American area that today have products with more than 10% of US components.
  • We could export knowledge and experiences.
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By US-Cuba Normalization Committee

Organizing Committee, International and Nationwide Conference for the Normalization of US-Cuba Relations.

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