HONG KONG – Lenovo Group Ltd, the world's No.2 PC maker, will open its first PC production plant in the United States with operations expected to begin in 2013.

The Whitsett, North Carolina, facility will manufacture Think-branded laptop and desktop PCs, tablets and servers aimed at the U.S. market, Lenovo said in a statement late on Tuesday.

Lenovo did not provide any investment figures but said it would create 115 jobs.

Over the past two years, Lenovo has invested in new plants and manufacturing joint ventures in China, Brazil and now the United States to produce PCs and mobile Internet devices such as smartphones, it said.

Shares of Lenovo, which analysts said is set to overtake Hewlett Packard Co later this year as the world's largest PC maker, rose more than 2 percent in early trade in Hong Kong on Wednesday to their highest in nearly a month, outperforming the main Hang Seng Index's 0.7 percent gain.