INDIAN LAND, S.C. – Keer, a textile company in China, is building yarn manufacturing lines in Lancaster, bringing more than 500 jobs.
The Carolinas were once the epicenter of the U.S. textile industry, but since the late 1990s, thousands of jobs were lost when emerging markets joined the game, touting cheaper materials and labor. Carolinas textile jobs went to China, Brazil and Vietnam, among other places.
Now, in an ironic turn of events, Chinese companies are looking to manufacture in the U.S., lured by lower costs of energy, cotton and land, and wary of rising labor costs in China.
Wally Wang, deputy general manager at Keer America, believes more Chinese textile companies and other manufacturers will follow Keer to the U.S. That would be welcomed in Lancaster County, which lost 11,000 textile jobs from 1995 to 2007.
China's global share in the global textile industry had rocketed in the past two decades, but lately, Chinese textile companies have been stressed by competition within its borders and by its rising costs of labor, power and land.
Cheaper cotton in the U.S. is a major draw.
In the past three years, the Chinese government has stockpiled cotton to boost prices, subsidizing disadvantaged local growers in the market. Officials set a cap, as well, when textile companies want to import foreign cotton.
Chinese cotton is priced at about $2,889 per ton, while American cotton is almost one-third cheaper, about $2,006 per ton. "Cotton price is the biggest challenge to our profit" in China, Wang said.
The cost to manufacture in China also has risen in recent years. Feeling the competition intensify, Keer looked toward the Carolinas, after ruling out Vietnam, India and Pakistan as potential destinations. By starting production in the U.S., Keer believes it has blazed a trail that other Chinese textile companies will follow.
In a Chinese idiom, it's "the first one who dares to eat the crab" — meaning many will follow after a "first."
