Industry turning to robots amid labor shortfall

Industrial robots are assuming more and more prominence in China as the country's manufacturing industry is stymied by a severe worker shortage and soaring labor costs.

China bought one-fifth of the world's industrial robot output in 2013, overtaking Japan as the biggest buyer of such technology, according to statistics released by the China Robot Industry Alliance (CRIA) recently.

Some 36,860 industrial robots were sold in the Chinese market last year, up 36 percent from 2012, according to the CRIA.

The passion for robots comes as Chinese businesses face pressure from a lack of manpower. A survey earlier this year showed a shortfall of 123,300 workers in the industrial southern Chinese heartland of Guangzhou, Guangdong Province.

A similar warning was issued by the Fujian provincial government. According to the province's human resources and social security bureau, it faced a shortfall of 80,000 laborers after the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, a time of high turnover among the country's army of migrant workers.

Governments at various levels in China have announced new strategies to support the production and application of robots, hoping the technology can make businesses more profitable and steer local economic development.

Last week, the government of central China's Hubei Province issued a circular stipulating robotics should be developed to become a main business in the province by the end of 2020, when it is hoped it will have generated about 10 billion yuan (US$1.6 billion) in revenue.

Under the wing of governmental support, the fledgling market is gaining momentum in a variety of localities.

For instance, Wuhan East Lake High-tech Development Zone of Hubei is already home to 40 companies engaging in robotic technology, and they are trying to attract companions to build an incubator for industrial robots. If successful, it will become the first place in China where industrial robots are designed, programmed and built on a large scale.

Meanwhile, Shanghai, Chongqing, Anhui and Guangdong have all listed developing the robotics industry as priorities on their agendas, while more than 30 cities have established production bases for robots.

As Chinese enterprises feel the pinch from the lack of affordable labor, robots seems to offer an efficient way to ease the pain.

In the injection moulding factory of Gree Electric Appliances Inc of Zhuhai in Guangdong Province, raw plastic is turned into components for air conditioners in an automated process. Robotic arms then place the finished parts on a conveyer belt, while robots also transport goods in the bustling factory.

Almost everything is done by robots, with only packaging left to be handled by human. That slashes the number of workers needed by the largest maker of home air conditioners in China while making the factory more efficient.

"Since we started to employ robots, the number of workers we hire is down by over 100 from more than 300, but our work efficiency has surged by 20 percent," said Cheng Hailiang, head of the factory.