Alabama: Automobiles + Socks

choi

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(1) Nick Bunkley, Hyundai Lifts Alabama; Jobs bring prosperity despite recession's effects. New York Times, Feb 19, 2011 (title in the print).
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/19/business/19hyundai.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=hyundai&st=cse

Quote:

"In 2010, Hyundai and Kia each posted their highest sales in the United States and, taken together, surged ahead of Ford Motor to become fourth-largest automaker worldwide.

"“If folks looked deeply at how far we’ve gone so quickly, from having no U.S. production five years ago to where we are today, it’s amazing,” John Krafcik, chief executive of Hyundai Motor America, said.

"'These jobs have good salaries and good fringe benefits, and are more self-fulfilling' than the ones that have left the area, said Seth Hammett, director of the Alabama Development Office. 'The automobile business has really been good for Alabama.'

"With an average regular wage of about $20 an hour, the additional overtime hours mean workers here are earning more than many workers at the unionized plants up north. The United Automobile Workers union has long tried to organize plants in the United States operated by foreign carmakers, most of which are in the South, but has yet to succeed anywhere.


My comment:
(a) Kia Motors
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kia_Motors
(起亞自動車)

Quote:

"According to Kia Motors, the name "Kia" derives from the Sino-Korean words ki ('to come out') and a (which stands for Asia), it is roughly translated as 'arise or come up out of Asia' or 'rising out of Asia'; founded in 1944 as a manufacturer of steel tubing and bicycle parts by hand)

"Kia's bankruptcy in 1997, part of the Asian financial crisis, resulted in 51% of the company being acquired in 1998 by South Korean rival Hyundai Motor Company, outbidding Ford Motor Company which had owned an interest in Kia Motors since 1986. Subsequently, however, Hyundai has divested some of its ownership of Kia Motors, and currently Hyundai Motor Company owns less than 40% of the company.

(b) Hyundai Kia Automotive Group
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyundai_Kia_Automotive_Group
(is South Korea's largest automobile manufacturer, the second largest automaker in Asia after Toyota and the world's fourth largest automaker after Toyota, GM, and Volkswagen as of the end of 2010)
(c) The report stated Kia "opened a plant last year just across the Georgia state line."

It alludes to Town of West Point, Georgia.

(d) The report mentions "Montgomery, the first capital of the old confederacy."

(i) Montgomery, Alabama
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery,_Alabama
(the capital and second most populous city of Alabama; In February 1861, Montgomery was selected as the first capital of the Confederate States of America [and Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as President on the steps of the State Capitol], until the seat of government moved to Richmond, Virginia in May of that year)

The city has population of 224,000 compared with Atlanta's 543,000.
(ii) Montgomery County, Alabama
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery_County,_Alabama
(County and city of Montgomery were established in 1816; The city of Montgomery, which is the county seat, is named for Richard Montgomery, an American Revolutionary War general killed in 1775 while attempting to capture Quebec City, Canada)
(e)  Marriott International owns the brand of Renaissance Hotels.
(f) In 1980s, South Korea pressed Taipei to buy a few hundred Kia cars for government use, if Taipei wanted to avert Korea's switching tie to Beijing. Kia then was infamous for poor quality.
(g) In this financial crisis, news reports emerged that Hyundai-Kia outsold everybody else. An Americna who did not drive speculate that it was because the cars were cheap. So I thought they must have been helped by 40% devaluation of Korean won. I did not know they were making car in US.


(2) Timothy W Martin, Alabama Sock Town Suffers as Cotton Soars; Remaining Mills in the 'Sock Capital of the World' Try Organic, or Move, in the Face of Rising Costs. Wall Street Journal, Feb 22, 2011.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703803904576152712394690824.html

Quote:

"A decade ago, one of every eight pairs of socks manufactured globally came from Fort Payne's more than 125 sock mills. Today, all but 14 of the mills are shuttered. Unemployment in the town of 14,000 people, located near the southwest tip of the Appalachian Mountains, is 10.4%.

"Most U.S. sock manufacturers—here and elsewhere across the South—have moved production overseas in the past decade, lured by cheaper labor and lower real-estate costs. Now, with record-high cotton prices pressuring profit margins, Gildan-Prewett, the town's largest remaining sock manufacturer, plans to close four mills here by April and shift production to Honduras.

My comment:
(a) Fort Payne, Alabama
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Payne,_Alabama
(b) Surprisingly, China is not mentioned.
(c) More surprisingly, I had thought Sock Capital of the World must be somewhere in China.

David Barboza, In Roaring China, Sweaters Are West of Socks City. New York Times, Dec 24, 2004.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/24/business/worldbusiness/24china.html

Quote:

"Datang produces an astounding nine billion pairs of socks each year - more than one set for every person on the planet. People here fondly call it Socks City

"Southeast from here is Shenzhou, which is the world's necktie capital. To the west is Sweater City and Kid's Clothing City. To the south, in the low-rent district, is Underwear City.

This remarkable specialization, one city for each drawer in your bureau, reflects the economies of scale and intense concentration that have helped turn China into a garment behemoth.

(i) Datang 浙江省绍兴市诸暨市 大唐镇
(ii) Shenzhou 浙江省绍兴市 嵊州市


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