Lenovo holds grand opening for US-based manufacturing plant

The ThinkPad Tablet 2 is one of the models Lenovo is making at its new US plant.

While Lenovo is based in China, the PC maker has been slowly expanding its reach in the US. Today, the company held its grand opening ceremony for its first US-based PC manufacturing plant, where it will make many of its Windows 8 desktops, laptops and tablets.

Lenovo's press release stated that the opening ceremony at the plant, located in Whitsett, North Carolina, was attended by North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory and other local officials. Lenovo will add 115 new jobs to the state as a result of the plant, which will fully ramp up production of PCs later in June.

Lenovo stated:

The new manufacturing line arms Lenovo with the capability to deliver products to customers with even greater efficiency and reliability, in addition to offering an expanded and more valuable set of PC-related services, including custom product configurations, imaging, asset tagging, bundling of products, and more.

The 240,000 square foot plant will produce many Windows 8 PCs, including the ThinkPad Tablet 2, the ThinkPad Helix notebook-tablet hybrid and more. It also makes ThinkCentre branded desktops, and as part of their opening ceremony, Lenovo donated 36 of those PCs made in the new plant to the nearby Greensboro YMCA.

Source: Lenovo