The Chinese government is funding companies to invest in the automation of industrial processes, by 2020 there will be more than 100 thousand robots in companies
China is preparing a new industrial revolution. The Asian country wants, in fact, to entrust robots with the production of any product. The process is already underway, so much so that in the latest annual report recently released by the Chinese government, and covering 2016, the robotics industry beats all others.
The growth of industrial robots in China has surged in recent months. Compared to 2015, this sector had a growth of 30.4%. We are talking about at least 72,000 new machines in the last year. China’s rush into industrial automation is due to two factors. First, the young age of the population has reduced the percentage of people of working age and this has raised wages. Therefore, large companies are thinking of ways to have to rely on less labor. In addition, the government aims to strengthen its technology sector in order to reduce dependence on foreign companies.
The Government’s Effort
Both at the national and local levels, the government has played an important role in pushing companies to adopt industrial robots. In 2015, Guangdong Province, one of China’s largest manufacturing centers, announced that it would spend about $150 billion to encourage robot-based industrial production. Economic support typically comes in the form of subsidies for factories looking to add robots to their assembly lines, as well as for robot manufacturers. China’s plan is to get 100,000 industrial robots up and running by 2020. At the current rate, the Asian country will easily reach and exceed that figure. It is no coincidence that more than 3,000 companies producing robots, or at least the parts needed to make these machines, have recently sprung up in China.
China and robots
China is already the world’s largest producer of industrial robots. The country has a share of about 27% of the global market. At the same time, it is also the world’s largest buyer of robots. It is estimated that Chinese companies have often about $3 billion to buy robotic devices in the last period. All of this data comes from research by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR). Despite rapid growth, the robotics industry in China has yet to reach absolute levels of excellence. In fact, most of the industrial robots that China produces are not very complex and are not comparable with those made in Japan or Switzerland. With this in mind, Chinese companies are starting to buy foreign companies. Last year, China’s Midea bought for $5 billion the German group Kuka, one of the world’s leading robotics companies. Also the US company Paslin, which produces robots focused on the creation of cars, has been bought by the Chinese. In short, where they won’t arrive with their own structures, the Chinese seem willing to buy the competences of others in order to arrive as soon as possible to the total automation of the industry.