MANUFACTURING | IMPORT & EXPORT
Costa Rica Gets First Cotton Spinning Mill
SAE-A, the largest apparel manufacturing company in South Korea, has opened a cotton spinning mill in Costa Rica, which is the first for the Central American country.
Construction on the mill started in February 2014 and was completed by this January, but the company spent two months doing a pilot-production run before full production began recently.
The mill’s current annual yarn-production capacity is 19.8 million pounds, which is enough to make 30 million garments a year. When operating at full capacity, the mill will be able to produce 44 million pounds of yarn.
SAE-A, founded in 1986, has a large, almost vertical presence in Central America with fabric knitting and dyeing capabilities in the region. It has five sewing factories and one embroidery/printing factory in Guatemala and five sewing factories and one wash house in Nicaragua. The company also has four sewing factories and two wash houses in Haiti.
In Central America, SAE-A sews T- shirts for a number of large U.S. retailers including Target and Walmart.
