DONGGUAN.- Beset by rising labor costs and the progress of manufacturers of cheap products to countries with lower labor cost, China hopes robotics recovery of its industrial competitiveness and hopes to strengthen its leadership in this .
The Asian giant, which since 2013 is the world market for industrial robots, industry is now accelerating the process to also establish itself as a technological reference, and its main scenario is the triangle formed by the cities of Dongguan, Foshan and Guangzhou in the south.
Chinese companies bought 34,000 robots in 2013, when this country was leading the world market in the sector, and the figure rose 2014-56000 units, of which 10,600 were Domestic, according to data released in March by an industry association based in Frankfurt (Germany).
Rising labor costs creates “challenges” manufacturers and “a way to resolve them is to intensify line automation Mounting “summarizes Efe Keyu Chang, president of international operations of giant appliances and air conditioners Midea, at its headquarters in Foshan.
That process is already underway in Midea,” reduces the number of workers and It stabilizes labor costs and increase efficiency. It is part of our strategy, “he added.
In other industries in the area, such as car manufacturing plant in Guangzhou GAC Motor is increasing robotization has to consolidate.
addition to lower costs and increased competition, the Chinese authorities have opted for this transformation to cross a new threshold in economic development in its strategic plan to promote high-tech sectors and services and reduce the weight of heavy industry.
In Dongguan, dubbed “the world’s factory,” the mayor Yuan Boacheng is very clear and fully supports the process to prevent the escape of companies to countries with lower wages.
“We value replacing human labor with automated systems, “Yuan said this week in a press conference with foreign journalists, in which he stressed that his government wants” to help companies reduce costs. “
In fact, municipal government has created a special fund of 200 million yuan this season (32.5 million dollars, 31 million euros) to subsidize small automation industries.
Official estimates suggest that, in the current phase 500 projects, installation of automated systems can destroy some 30,000 jobs in the city, but the companies involved would increase its annual sales volume up to 30.000 billion yuan (4.880 billion dollars, 4.615 million euros).
The mayor hopes that those who lose their jobs find another in the booming service sector, especially in the hospitality industry.
Things look just a little further south, in neighboring Foshan, where “there is a huge demand for robots, “according to the Deputy Mayor Song Deping, who said the city industries absorb between 15,000 and 20,000 automated machines the next three years.
According to Song,” no lack of work “to relocate to lose their jobs in the assembly.
Far from humanoid robots rudimentary technology present for years in some restaurants in China as a commercial claim, robots who arrived decades ago to the chains of production of high price (like electronics or cars) increasingly appear in new sectors and processes such as polishing or storage.
Dongguan, China’s core export industry in the delta of the Pearl River, has 8.2 million and is a melting pot of automotive factories, but also less technically advanced sectors such as textiles, footwear and toys.
But it also has around 400 robotics manufacturers, according to Bonnie Shi Jinbo, founder and CEO of qkm, one of the four companies of automatic machines or new technologies that integrate Robotics Park Songshan Lake.
Shi told Efe stresses that the industrial development of Dongguan industries based on cheap labor and Robotics is now the key to “help change the business model towards higher level.”
And in Foshan, it seeks to increase the number of local robotics companies, explained the Deputy Mayor Song, who bet on create more technology institutes and research centers.
in the city there are currently about 125 manufacturers of automated systems in what is anticipated as a competition among cities to attract the technology sector.
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