Robots on the rise in China

Industrial Robots

Robots on the rise in China

Illustration: Adolfo Arranz

by Victoria Ruan in Beijing | South China Morning Post

As Liu Yilian busily hands out promotional materials at an international machine-tool show in Beijing, several industrial robots nimbly flex their long arms as they work away behind a glass wall beside her.

"My name cards have been used up," says Liu, marketing chief for Shanghai-Fanuc Robotics, the Chinese joint venture of Japanese giant Fanuc. The yellow cotton bags with Fanuc's brand name emblazoned on them are also gone, she adds, regretfully.

The interest reflects a growing interest in robotics among Chinese manufacturers, who are increasingly turning to technology to overcome the challenges of rising labour costs and fierce competition from emerging nations in South and Southeast Asia. According to Liu, the Shanghai arm of Fanuc, which dominates the global market for industrial robotics, almost doubled sales every year until cooling somewhat following the 2009 global financial crisis and outbreak of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, which hurt the supply of raw materials. Read the entire article