Mainland fridge maker's US factory helping head off a trade cold war

News that Haier's refrigerator plant in Camden, South Carolina, was hiring 128 more workers made the headlines in March in a state that has one of the highest unemployment rates in the United States.

The hiring was a result of a US$6 million expansion at Haier America Refrigerators, the manufacturing branch of Haier America, in the first phase of a US$100 million, 1,000-job plan announced by Haier last year during Vice-Premier Wu Yi's visit to the city.

The 128 jobs would take the plant's workforce to about 350, all of them American, making it one of the major employers in the county. Mainland manufacturers have long been accused by some Americans of stealing jobs from the US by taking advantage of their low-cost labour and an undervalued currency.

Republican presidential candidate Duncan Hunter said this month that 'we've lost 1.8 million jobs in the United States, high-paying manufacturing jobs, to China - 27,000 jobs lost in South Carolina alone.' Haier provides a different story.

Gerald Reeves, who has worked at Haier's Camden plant since it opened in 1999, says that at a time when many American companies were moving manufacturing to countries such as China or Mexico, Haier is opening factories in the United States. 'It's a pretty neat thing.'

Compared with the tens of thousands of jobs the mainland is accused of taking from the state, Haier's contribution to the local job market may be more symbolic than significant, but the firm's presence is welcome.