"I think it is a sort of unknown secret here, if I can use that term, that transportation parts manufacturing is really a leading industry in North Carolina," says Walden, a specialist with the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service. "It is a multibillion-dollar industry in the state.

"And I think the reason is we have access to good roads, we have good labor. We also have access to vehicle assembly plants, many of them in South Carolina," he adds.

"Indeed this whole industry has been moving south over the last 25 years. It used to be that all the transportation parts manufacturers were in the Midwest. Well, they have slowly been moving south over the last quarter century.

"So this is an industry where the outlook for the state is very good."