CANTON, MI -- An American TV manufacturer? You'd have to see it to believe it.

It's been years since Zenith packed up its production lines and relocated to Mexico. Sony closed its last US plant in 2010; Magnavox years earlier. TV manufacturing has become the domain of Mexico, Turkey, Eastern Europe and -- where else? -- China.

But a pair of Midwestern US companies are trying to change that trend. Saying the cost advantage to build and import large sets from China has been eradicated by higher wages, shipping and other logistics costs, the companies have hired workers and begun production in, of all places, Michigan.

The decision joins a Minnesota-based distributor with a Michigan-based manufacturer. Element Electronics, of Eden Prairie, MN, and Lotus International, of Canton, MI, have hired a reported 100 workers to build the new lines of flat-screen TVs. The sets are a minimum 46" in size; smaller units would not achieve profitable margins, the company indicated in press reports.

Production is scheduled to begin in March.

Lotus is a contract manufacturer that specializes in automotive and consumer electronics. More important, it has experience building LCD monitors, and Element's TVs will reportedly take up one of Lotus' three TV production lines at the company's 230,000 sq. ft. site. Lotus reportedly has capacity to build 500,000 units a year.

Element, a distributor which previously has outsourced to production to Tongfang Global to make private label products to big box retail stores, is headed by Michael O'Shaughnessy, former CEO of Polaroid and a longtime Frigidaire executive.

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