Shri Govindaraja Textiles, part of the Jayavilas Group, is setting up an open-end spinning unit in Eden, North Carolina. The spinning unit will have 16 machines and its production capacity will be 35 tonnes of yarn a day. The plant is expected to start production by the end of December this year.

Ramkumar Varadarajan, Managing Director, speaking at a roundtable discussion held here on Monday with Vinai Thummalapally, Executive Director of Select USA. Mr. Varadarajan said that they would be investing $45 million in this project.

The three major intentions for deciding to invest in the U.S. were that North Carolina was a cotton growing area and hence contamination free cotton was available locally, the cost of power was just one-third of that here and quality power supply was assured 24x7, and the cost of capital was just one-third of that in India.

Also North and Central America have a lot of knitting and weaving units and hence, market for the yarn would not be a problem. Since it was a highly mechanised unit, the maximum number of people employed for a shift would be just 12.

According to an industry source, currently there is a trend of revival of the textile industry going on in the U.S. and some units in India might consider starting operations there.