为什么这家中国公司要拓展美国资源

As more Chinese manufacturers are looking abroad for cheaper labor costs, Karina Huber tells you why one company decided to set up a subsidiary in the U.S. state of South Carolina.

Keer America, a subsidiary of Keer Group, recently opened its doors in Lancaster County, South Carolina.

Workers at the plant take raw cotton grown in the U.S. and turn it into yarn. The yarn is then mainly shipped back to China to make clothing. The clothing is then sold back to consumers in the United States.

"I think it's been an eye-opening experience for a lot of people. You know they see that China is bringing industry back to America. That's a great thing," Oatis Perkins, production manager of Keer America, said.

It may sound like a roundabout way to get things done, but it's now more cost effective to make the yarn in the U.S. than in China.

That's partially because wages in this area are relatively low while wages in China continue to rise.

According to the Boston Consulting Group, manufacturing wages in China have almost tripled over the last decade, to an estimated $12.47 an hour last year.

Keer says it pays its U.S. workers more than that, but it's able to keep labor costs in check because this is a highly automated plant. It also makes sense for Keer to be here because there are cotton subsidies in the U.S. that make it much less expensive to purchase here than in China.

Natural gas costs are also lower and land is cheap. And the state has been offering all kinds of incentives to bring manufacturing back.

The area was hit hard by the global recession and decades of job losses as manufacturers moved production abroad.

The unemployment rate at around 6.4 percent is higher than the national average.
One of the last major textile employers, Springs Industries, shut its doors in 2007.
Brian Carnes, the Vice Chairman of the Lancaster County Council says Keer America's arrival couldn't have come at a better time.

"They have added manufacturing into the community and brought jobs in for people that were working for Springs and had backgrounds in textile as well as new people that maybe don't have the skills or the education to get jobs in some of the higher tech businesses that we have coming into our community," Brian Carnes, vice chairman of Lancaster County Council, said.

Perkins has worked in manufacturing before but this is the first time he has worked for a Chinese company.

"It's a little unusual only because of the communication barrier, but we do have translators here," Oatis said.

Ke Wang, the Plant Manager at Keer America says there may be differences, but they are invested in making it work.

"Americans and Chinese think differently, but we always can find a way that we can work together. We work as a team and we will find a way to create our own culture," Wang said.

All across North and South Carolina a new hybrid culture is being created. Keer is just one of more than 20 Chinese manufacturers that have set up shop in Carolinas-and more are expected to come.