A Chinese auto-parts manufacturer that dominates its home country's headlight market is setting up its first American factory in Rowan County. Xingyu Automotive Lighting Systems plans to invest $50 million in the first phase of a new plant at the Landis Ridge business park, with hiring set to begin in the first quarter of 2027 and operations expected to start that spring.
According to WSOC-TV, the company expects to hire at least 300 employees over the next few years at a 121,800-square-foot facility at 205 Richwater Street. General manager Hua Qin said the $50 million figure covers only the project's first phase, and the plant will manufacture plastic injection-molded components for automotive headlights and taillights that will be supplied to vehicle manufacturers.
Xingyu considered locations across the Carolinas and Texas before settling on Landis, citing the business park's manufacturing capabilities, access to workers and utilities, and its position within the southeast automotive corridor, the station's report states. The Rowan Economic Development Council and the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina assisted with site selection, with the county agency helping with permitting, workforce development, and utility connections. Per the same account, Xingyu is not using economic development incentives for the Landis project, according to the Rowan EDC. The company signed a 10-year lease for the facility.
Why This Corner of Rowan County
The building Xingyu is moving into didn't exist a year ago. The 121,800-square-foot facility was delivered in December 2025 as part of Landis Ridge's 594,300-square-foot Phase I speculative development, according to REBusinessOnline. Texas-based developer Jackson-Shaw completed that first phase, marking the company's first project in the Charlotte market, per the station's report.
Landis Ridge spans 150 acres off Old Beatty Ford Road, less than a mile from Exit 65 on Interstate 85, which REBusinessOnline notes is the southernmost interstate interchange in Rowan County — a location that puts the plant squarely on the Southeast's automotive supply corridor. The park was also built with three on-site Duke Energy transmission lines engineered to handle the high electrical loads that advanced manufacturing tenants require, according to the Salisbury Post. That kind of power capacity matters for Xingyu, whose plastic injection molding machinery is energy-intensive.
The business park isn't finished growing. Landis Ridge's Phase II covers another 58 acres prepared for up to 450,000 square feet of build-to-suit projects, including a planned 200,000-square-foot cold storage facility from SunCap Property Group, per REBusinessOnline's reporting.
A Supplier With Global Reach
Xingyu isn't a small player looking to test the American market. The company is China's largest domestic automotive lighting supplier by revenue, controlling roughly 11.6% of the country's domestic lighting market and about 10% of the global intelligent-lighting market, according to The Auto Wire. It's publicly traded on the Shanghai Stock Exchange with a market capitalization of around $3 billion and trailing 12-month revenue of $2.2 billion as of September 2026, per PitchBook, which also notes the company was founded in 2007 and employs more than 7,500 people worldwide.
Its client list includes some of the biggest names in the auto industry — Volkswagen, BMW, BYD, SAIC General Motors, and FAW Group, per The Auto Wire. Xingyu also makes adaptive driving beam matrix-LED headlights, which use forward-facing cameras and individual LED segments to prevent glare for oncoming drivers while still delivering strong high-beam visibility, the outlet reports.
Recent Layoff Controversy in China
Xingyu's U.S. debut comes just weeks after a rockier chapter back home. In August 2026, the company faced public backlash and a regulatory probe from local labor authorities after abruptly laying off 107 newly hired college graduates, prompting an official apology and severance packages as Xingyu prepared for a secondary stock listing in Hong Kong, according to The Auto Wire. The dispute reportedly drew inquiries from major customer Volkswagen and from Chinese labor regulators.
That episode offers a contrast as the company now prepares to hire roughly 300 workers in Rowan County starting in the first quarter of 2027. Xingyu's expansion also fits a broader pattern along the Interstate 85 corridor, where Rowan County has built out nearly 19 million square feet of planned, active, or available Class A speculative industrial space as of early 2025, according to Expansion Solutions.
Xingyu's arrival adds to a growing list of major corporate tenants in the county. Google operates a 730,000-square-foot logistics facility in China Grove, and American Eagle runs a 473,000-square-foot distribution center in Salisbury, per WSOC-TV's reporting. The county is also pursuing a separate, unidentified manufacturing project known as Project Tribe, which could bring a $63 million investment and 280 jobs to Rowan County, the station reports.
