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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: elmatador who wrote (131283)3/4/2017 6:07:10 PM
From: TobagoJack  Respond to of 217518
 
doubtful that china is running out of labour

dubious that china running out of cheap labour is an undesirable trend

am guessing that the industrialisation / tech-upgrade of china agriculture is at the beginning, w/ far to go

in the mean time, the obvious trend is assuredly a friend

am guessing that come 2022 china shall be a large exporter of industrial robots, because it beats marketing plastic flowers and selling t-shirts

qz.com

China is rapidly making robots that will one day manufacture everything you buy

Written by Josh Horwitz

China is getting serious about manufacturing’s robot revolution.

On Feb. 28, its statistics bureau released an annual report that summarizes the economy’s performance over the past year. It showed that, in terms of output growth, industrial robots beat all other categories, with the 72,000-plus sets produced marking a 30.4% annual increase from 2015 (albeit from a relatively small base).

China’s rush to automate manufacturing stems from two trends. First, the country’s working-age population is shrinking, leading to rising labor costs. One way China’s factories can cope with this squeeze is to rely less on workers. In addition, the government aims to bolster its tech sector in order to reduce its reliance on foreign companies.

Both on the national and local level, the government has played a large role in pushing for more robots. In 2015 the Guangdong province, one of China’s major manufacturing hubs, announced it would spend about $150 billion on encouraging robotics-based manufacturing. Its support typically arrives in the form of subsidies for factories looking to add robots to their assembly lines, as well as for companies building robots for other manufacturers.

In the five-year plan it announced last year, the national government said China would boost its annual production of industrial robots to 100,000 by 2020.

At the current rate, the country is on track to exceed that target, assuming the numbers from the statistics bureau can be trusted— not a given in China (the bureau did not respond to questions Quartz sent by email). Meanwhile, over 3,000 industrial robot makers have surfaced in the country in the past five years, according to the China Robot Industry Alliance, a trade group.

China is already the world’s largest producer of industrial robots, supplying about 27% of the global market since 2015, according to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR). It’s also the largest buyer of robots. According to the IFR and Bernstein Research, China’s factories spent over $3 billion acquiring industrial robots in 2015.



Despite the rapid growth, China’s robotics industry has yet to catch up to the best overseas companies. Most of the industrial robots that China produces are relatively simple compared to the machines made by well-known foreign companies like Japan’s Fanuc or Switzerland’s ABB. About 69% of the industrial robots that Chinese factories purchase for themselves come from abroad, and most robots made in China rely heavily on imported foreign components.

This gap could ultimately lead to more acquisitions of foreign companies. Last year Chinese appliance maker Midea paid about $5 billion for Kuka, Germany’s century-old maker of manufacturing equipment and a leader in industrial robotics. Months after that, Zhejiang Wanfeng Technology Development, a subsidiary of a Chinese car parts supplier, purchased US-based Paslin, a robotics maker focused on the automotive industry, for about $300 million.

If China’s robot makers can’t match the quality of their rivals in the coming years, buying them might be just as efficient.




To: elmatador who wrote (131283)3/6/2017 7:00:59 AM
From: TobagoJack  Respond to of 217518
 
Re <<China Is Running Out Of Cheap Rural Labor>>

... being a good thing, even as there appears plenty of labor all about, albeit more expensive but not terribly so

... double check your premise

scmp.com

Foxconn to hire its biggest intake of Chinese college graduatesFoxconn, the biggest assembler of electronic devices for Apple, is to recruit 12,000 college graduates plus 6,000 students who have completed their studies at vocational schools in China this year.

It marks the biggest college recruitment campaign undertaken by the giant electronics firm, which employs more than a million workers in its factories across China.

This year is expected to be busy for Foxconn as Apple is likely to launch its iPhone 8 model in the second half of 2017, with the top-of-the-line model assembled by the Taiwan-based technology firm, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry.

Rise in protectionism will be tough on 2017 global economy, says Foxconn tycoon Terry Gou

The recruitment provides evidence that Foxconn is not reducing its presence in China, even though it is considering spending US$7 billion investing in the US. The move could create thousands of posts as President Donald Trump calls for greater investment and job creation in the US.

Terry Gou, Foxconn’s founder, said in speech in Shenzhen on Monday announcing the recruitment programme that it was time for Chinese college graduates to “roll up their sleeves and work hard” in his firm’s factories, helping the company and the Chinese economy.

He compared the near eight million students graduating from Chinese colleges with cadets graduating from the US Military Academy at West Point. Foxconn’s 30-strong factories on the mainland were the battlefields for China’s young to prove and improve themselves, said Gou.

An entry-level manual job at a Foxconn factory offers a basic salary of about 2,400 yuan (US$350) per month in Shenzhen, with incomes rising up to 4,000 yuan a month with overtime, according to recruitment notices.

Gou’s comments come as the world’s second-largest economy is struggling to shift its economy away from heavy industry and low-cost manufacturing to high-tech industries driven by innovation.

Gou is also trying to transform his company from a labour-intensive processing firm into a technology giant.

“Upgrading manufacturing is our hope, but first of all we need to upgrade our talent,” Gou said at a research and development centre converted from a factory at the Longhua Industrial Park in Shenzhen.

“When we are making new products, we need highly educated people. They have theories to refer to. We can provide [work] experience,” he said.

Foxconn hits bumps in road to full automation

Foxconn has hired 7,000 Chinese college graduates on average each year over the past decade, according to the company.

“In the past, Foxconn were associated by people with hiring lots of farmers-turned-migrant workers. Now we hope to recruit graduates and engineers who come from the countryside,” said Gou.

Outside Foxconn’s recruitment centre in Longhua Park, hundreds of migrant workers were waiting at noon for job interviews.

The days after the Lunar New Year holiday in China are usually a prime period for factories to recruit, although some work has been automated at Foxconn’s assembly lines.

“Dorms for men are full. For those who want accommodation, please come tomorrow,” a recruiter shouted though a loudhailer.