Once the epitome of cheap mass manufacturing, textile producers from formerly low-cost nations are starting to gravitate toward the U.S.
INDIAN LAND, S.C. —
Twenty-five years ago, Ni Meijuan earned $19 a month working the spinning machines at a vast textile factory in the Chinese city of Hangzhou.
Now at the Keer Group’s cotton mill in South Carolina, which opened in April, Ni is training U.S. workers to do the job she used to do.
“They’re quick learners,” Ni said after showing two fresh recruits how to tease errant wisps of cotton from the machines’ grinding gears.