(Photo : Shaw Industries)

The world's largest carpet maker, US-based Shaw Industries, has announced the opening of its $45-million carpet tile plant in Nantong, Jiangsu province, China.

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The plant is Shaw's first and only carpet manufacturing plant outside the United States. It will manufacture recyclable carpets for the Asian market, said Chairman and CEO Vance Bell.

Shaw Industries is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, the multinational conglomerate holding company of US billionaire Warren Buffet.

According to a report by the official China Daily, Shaw's Nantong Plant will enable the company to better serve the fast-growing demand for carpets in Asia, most especially in China, where carpet sales have grown 20 per cent annually.

China is World's Third Largest Carpet-Tile Market

China, the report said, is now the third largest carpet-tile market in the world and the demand for high quality carpets will continue to grow in the coming years.

Warren Buffet said that while only a few Chinese consumers buy carpets for residential use, the carpet tiles sold by Shaw will surely entice Chinese customers to look at Shaw and make purchases.

Buffet, in a video speech shown during the opening of the Nantong plant, said the new manufacturing facility in China will be very advantageous to Shaw as he expressed hope that the opening of the new plant will just be a beginning of Shaw's much larger operation over time.

$4 Billion Annual Sales

Carpets manufactured by Shaw Industries serve both the residential and commercial markets. With annual sales of $4 billion, the company is considered as the largest carpet maker in the world.

Shaw's Asia Pacific Vice President Jeff Galloway said Nantong is the perfect place for the company's first ever plant outside of the US considering that Nantong is home to China's modern textile industry.

Shaw, however, is not new to China as it already operates showrooms or sales offices in Guangzhou, Chengdu, Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong.