“China has an army of robots in the Trade War!”
A recent article on the website of the New York Times focused on China’s army of robots, arguing that they have revolutionized the country’s manufacturing sector, it has given Chinese factories the ability to keep prices low for many of the products they export and the edge in dealing with Donald Trump’s high tariffs and the trade war.
The article noted that factories in China are now more automated than those in the U. S. , Germany or Japan.
According to the International Federation of Robotics, China has the third-highest number of industrial robots per 10,000 manufacturing workers in the world, behind only South Korea and Singapore.
The article noted that industrial robots are not only being used in large factories such as car factories, but also in many small workshops. For example, the owner of a small factory in Guangzhou with 11 workers making cheap ovens and barbecue equipment is about to buy a robotic arm with a camera from a Chinese company. The device can autonomously learn how to weld the sides of an oven through artificial intelligence and then repeat the action with minimal human intervention.
Just four years ago, the same system could only be purchased from foreign robotics companies for about $140,000 — compared with about $40,000 for Chinese companies, the article said. The factory owner says he never imagined he would be able to invest in automation equipment.
Auto factories in the United States also use automation, but much of the equipment comes from China, the article said. Most of the car assembly plants built in the past 20 years have been in China, where the automation industry has grown up.
Chinese companies have also acquired overseas suppliers of advanced robots, such as Germany’s Kuka, and moved most of their operations to China. The article noted that Volkswagen has only one robot from Germany at its electric car plant in Hefei, and that more than 1,000 others are made in Shanghai.
The article also noted that Chinese universities produce about 350,000 mechanical engineering graduates a year, as well as electricians, welders and other trained technicians. In contrast, only about 45,000 mechanical engineering graduates graduate from US universities each year. The co-founder of a leading US robot maker says one of its biggest challenges is finding skilled staff.