China to have most robots in world by 2017
China to have most robots in world by 2017
By Georgina Prodhan
FRANKFURT Thu Feb 5, 2015 11:25am EST
Feb 5 (Reuters) - 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 global
robot trade -- or $29 billion including associated software, peripherals and
systems engineering -- China lags far behind its more industrialised 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 labour 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 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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