China will have more robots operating in its
production plants by 2017 than any other country as it cranks up automation of
its car and electronics factories, the International Federation of Robotics
(IFR) said on Thursday.
Already
the biggest market in the $9.5 billion (6 billion pound) global robot trade —
or $29 billion including associated software, peripherals and systems
engineering — China lags far behind its more industrialized peers in terms of
robot density.
China
has just 30 robots per 10,000 workers employed in manufacturing industries,
compared with 437 in South Korea, 323 in Japan, 282 in Germany and 152 in the
United States.
But
a race by carmakers to build plants in China along with wage inflation that has
eroded the competitiveness of Chinese labor will push the operational stock of
industrial robots to more than double to 428,000 by 2017, the IFR estimates.
"Companies
are forced to invest ever more in robots to be more productive and raise
quality," said Gudrun Litzenberger, general secretary of the
Frankfurt-based IFR.
"In
the current phase it’s the auto industry, but in the next two or three years it
will be driven by the electronics industry," she said.
Japanese
robot makers still have the lion’s share of the market, with about 60 percent,
but Chinese suppliers are growing fast, with about a quarter of the market.
Most of the rest are supplied by European and U.S. manufacturers.
Four
foreign robot makers — Switzerland’s ABB, Germany’s Kuka, and Japan’s Yaskawa
and Fanuc — already have production sites in China and more are expected to
follow.
"The
automation of China’s production plants has just started," said Per Vegard
Nerseth, Managing Director of ABB Robotics. "We have witnessed swift,
almost explosive growth over the last two or three years, surpassing even our
expectations."
The
automotive industry is by far the largest customer for robots in China,
accounting for about 40 percent of robots in operation, as China is both the
world’s biggest car market and its biggest production site.
European
carmakers such as Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) and Daimler which have invested
heavily in China are bringing their robotics suppliers with them, Litzenberger
said.
The
electronics industry is expected to follow.
Taiwanese
contract manufacturing giant Foxconn, which makes Apple iPhones and iPads among
other products, is already making its own Foxbot robots as well as using robots
bought from other suppliers.
(Editing
by Mark Potter)
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