MOLINE, Ill. — Positioning the company to further capitalize on a growing international need for large equipment, Illinois-based Deere & Co. officials have announced plans to build two new construction machine plants in Brazil.

The nation’s largest farm equipment maker will cover about $124 million of the estimated $180 million for the two plants; partner Hitachi Construction Machinery Co. will pay the rest. Deere officials said the move is part of the company’s long-term plan to meet the needs of quickly developing nations, particularly in South America.

“It’s very clear we have great prospects for the coming several years for the upcoming (2014) World Cup and (2016) Olympic Games,” said Aaron Wetzel, president of John Deere Brazil. “As Brazil continues to grow, there are more cars on the road, there’s just a greater need for infrastructure throughout the company and that’s really the main driver of our investment decision to enter the construction market in Brazil.”

Construction is expected to begin early next year, with product manufacturing to start in late 2013. One factory, solely owned by Deere, will make backhoe loaders and four-wheel-drive loaders. The venture with Hitachi will produce large excavators.

Deere’s presence in Brazil already includes three manufacturing facilities, a parts distribution center, a John Deere Financial Services bank and one of the world’s largest irrigation companies. The new facilities are expected to be built in Indaiatuba, Sao Paulo. The type of construction machines Brazil needs have similar configurations to those Deere sells in the United States, Wetzel said. 

By assembling them in Brazil, Deere will meet local-content requirements of the Finame program through the national development bank, which offers low-rate financing for buyers of equipment made in Brazil.

Moving more into the international markets is one reason Deere cited its third-quarter earnings report showed a profit of about 15 percent, compared to the same quarter last year. For the third quarter, Deere’s earnings were $1.69 per share, up 17 percent from the $1.44 earned in the year-ago quarter. Net income was up 15 percent, to $712.3 million.

Deere’s worldwide total sales increased 22 percent, to $8.4 billion. Net sales of all equipment operations (which comprise agriculture and turf, construction and forestry) were $6.4 billion, up 22 percent.

On a geographic basis, equipment net sales were up 10 percent in the U.S. and Canada and 49 percent in rest of the world.

The two new plants are expected to employ upwards of 600 people, Wetzel said.