US Textile and Apparel Industries Coming Back to Life From Near Death

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Stephanie Clifford, Textile Plants Humming, But Not With Workers. New York Times, Sept 20, 2013 (front page).
http://www.nytims.com/2013/09/20 ... ctories-return.html

Quote:

"Just as the Carolinas benefited when manufacturing migrated first from the Cottonpolises of England to the mill towns of New England and then to here [Gaffney, SC], where labor was even cheaper, they suffered in the 1990s when the textile industry mostly left the United States. It headed to China, India, Mexico

"Parkdale Milles, the country's largest buyers of raw cotton * * * Bayard Winthrop, the founder of the sweatshirt and clothing company American Giant uses Parkdale yarn from one of its 25 American factories [specifically, the one at Gaffney], and has that yarn spun into fabric about four miles from Parkdale's Gaffney plant, at Carolina Cotton Works.

"In 2012, textile and apparel exports were $22.7 billion, up 37 percent from just three years earlier. While the size of operations remain behind those of overseas powers like China, the fact that these industries are thriving again after almost being left for dead is indicative of a broader reassessment by American companies about manufacturing in the United States.

"And politicians’ promises that American manufacturing means an abundance of new jobs is complicated — yes, it means jobs, but on nowhere near the scale there was before, because machines have replaced humans at almost every point in the production process. Take Parkdale: The mill here produces 2.5 million pounds of yarn a week with about 140 workers. In 1980, that production level would have required more than 2,000 people.

Mr Winthrop "wanted to sell his hooded sweatshirt for around $80, between the $10 Walmart version, made in China, and the $125 Polo Ralph Lauren version, made in Peru. He was insistent on cutting and sewing the sweatshirts in the United States — a company called American Giant couldn’t do that part overseas, he felt — but wasn’t picky about where the fabric came from. * * * he settled on a mill in Haryana, India * * * [But among usual problems with overseas suppliers,] He also found that suppliers deferred to his wishes, rather than being frank about some of his choices, which weren’t, he conceded, always good ones.

"Now that production has shifted to the United States, Mr Winthrop says those problems have disappeared. Mr. Winthrop and his team visit Carolina Cotton Works and Parkdale whenever they want, check on quality and toss ideas around with the managers. And, he says, the cost is less than in India. Where Mr Winthrop relies on labor — the cutting and sewing of the sweatshirts, which he does in five factories in California and North Carolina — is where the costs jump up. That costs his company around $17 for a given sweatshirt; overseas, he says, it would cost $5.50.

In part due to automation, "the absence of high-paid American workers in the new factories has made the revival possible. 'Most of our costs are power-related,' said Dan Nation, a senior Parkdale executive.

"[heading:] March of the Machines  Step inside Parkdale Mills, and prepare to be overwhelmed by machines. The ceilings are high and the machines stretch city block after city block * * * Only infrequently does a person interrupt the automation, mainly because certain tasks are still cheaper if performed by hand — like moving half-finished yarn between machines on forklifts. Beyond that, there is little that resembles the mills of just a few decades ago.

[The challenges US textile and apparel industries faced in the past 2 decades: North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994 (which erased import duties), the 1997 Asian financial crisis (causing Southeastern Asian currencies to collapse--depreciated by 30-40 %) and China's joining WTO--which, adding to the blow to US, in 2005 eliminated textile quotas.] "In 1991, American-made apparel accounted for 56.2 percent of all the clothing bought domestically, according to the American Apparel and Footwear Association. By 2012, it accounted for 2.5 percent. Over all, the American manufacturing sector lost 32 percent of its jobs, 5.8 million of them, between 1990 and 2012, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The textile and apparel subsectors were hit even harder, losing 76.5 percent of their jobs, or 1.2 million.

"Ms [Donna] McKoy[, who started working at 2007,] now works at a plant in Walnut Cove, NC, which she described as a smaller version of the Gaffney plant. She earns &47,000 a year and says the perks are good, like health care, an in-house nurse [at the plant] and monthly  management classes for supervisors[, which she is]. She recently bought a three-bedroom house and owns a car.


Note:
(a) "Tell people about a textile plant and 'their image is "Norma Rae," and everyone’s sick and dirty and coughing and it’s terrible,' said Mike Hubbard, vice president of the National Council of Textile Organizations."

Norma Rae
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norma_Rae
(a 1979 film; Sally Field won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal as Norma Rae Webster)

(b)
(i) About. Parkdale Mills, undated
http://www.parkdalemills.com/about/
(chartered in 1916 [and still headquartered] in Gastonia, NC)

Quote:

"While acquisitions continued, business strategy turned to construction in the mid-1990s. Over a period of 15 years Parkdale built nine new plants in the US, the latest being the W Duke Kimbrell plant [named after current chairman] which opened in Gaffney, South Carolina in 2010.

"Today the parent company, Parkdale Inc., through its subsidiaries, processes 60% of the U.S. annual cotton consumption. It is one of the largest provider of spun yarns in the world, producing over 8,000 tons per week of products at 29 manufacturing plants in the US, Central America, Mexico, and South America.
(II) Inside a Yarn Factory. YouTube.com, published by SouthCarolinaETV on Jul 27, 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWPHGndkXXg
("Parkdale in Gaffney, S.C. is one of the largest yarn factories in the world")

(ii) Gastonia, North Carolina
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastonia,_North_Carolina
(part of the Charlotte metropolitan area)
(iii) Gaffney, South Carolina
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaffney,_South_Carolina
(Michael A.Gaffney, born in Ireland in 1775, emigrated to America in 1797)

(c) Carolina Cotton Works, Inc
www.carolinacotton.com/
(d) To sum up, Mr Winthrop's American Giant is an apparent maker, which nowadays gets its fabric from Carolina Cotton Works, Inc, which in turn buys yarn from Parkdale.
(e) There is no need to read the rest of text of the lengthy report, whose online version does have a graphic worth viewing--the photos, not so much.