Liu is investing $10 million in the Palmetto State, building a printing-plate factory that will open this fall and hire 120 workers. His main aim is to tap the large American market, but when his finance staff penciled out the costs, he was stunned to learn how they compared with those in China.
Liu spent about $500,000 for seven acres in Spartanburg?less than one-fourth what it would cost to buy the same amount of land in Dongguan, a city in southeast China where he runs three plants. US electricity rates are about 75% lower, and in South Carolina, Liu doesn?t have to put up with frequent blackouts.
About the only major thing that?s more expensive in Spartanburg is labor. Liu is looking to offer $12 to $13 an hour there, versus about $2 an hour in Dongguan, not including room and board. But Liu expects to offset some of the higher labor costs with a payroll tax credit of $1,500 per employee from South Carolina.
?I was surprised,? said the 63-year-old president of Shanxi Yuncheng Plate-Making Group. ?The gap?s not as large as I thought.? Liu is part of a growing wave of Chinese entrepreneurs expanding into the US. From Spartanburg to Los Angeles they are building factories, buying companies and investing in real estate.
This is still a relatively small macro economic factor. However, it is growing. The push so far is economic?not a move to lean manufacturing to put manufacturing close to the customer. What is the biggest factor? The US is spending more than $400 billion every year more than it produces. The only way to consume more than you produce is to borrow or sell stuff you own to those that are producing more than they are consuming. China is producing more than $200 billion more than it consumes every year.
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