Nien Hsing Textile Co, Ltd., a jeans and denim manufacturer listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, is to establish factories in Central America and Africa with estimated total investment of US$135m over the next three years, the Chinese Economic News reported yesterday.Nien Hsing is the world's largest original equipment manufacturing (OEM) producer of jeans. Through merging its subsidiary Chih Hsing Garment Co, Ltd last month, Nien Hsing has increased its monthly production volume of jeans by 85 per cent to 230,000 dozen.Besides the increase in domestic production, Nien Hsing will also expand its overseas production by establishing additional factories over the next three years. The company will invest US$50m to set up two factories of casual garments and a factory to dye and finish fabric for making casual garments. The two casual garment factories will each have monthly production capacity of 90,000 dozen, with one to begin operation in February and the other in June next year. With operation scheduled for October 2001, the dyeing and finishing factory will have monthly processing capacity of three million yards.