More than half of manufacturers at Jiangsu electronics hub planning switch to robot workforce, survey shows
Some 600 major industrial enterprises in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, are going to replace human labour with robots within the next five years, according to a survey.
A total of 600 major industrial enterprises in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, are going to replace human labour with robots within the next five years, according to a survey conducted by the city’s commission of economy and information.
Out of 100 manufacturers surveyed at one of China's largest manufacturing hubs for the electronics industry, over 50 per cent of them said they were preparing robot production lines, while the government said the value of the city’s automation and robotics market would reach 80 billion yuan by 2020, news website chinanews.com reported.
The city’s government is handing out 2 billion yuan in annual subsidies to support local manufacturers who install robots on assembly lines.
So far, there were about 80 robot-manufacturing companies in operation across Kunshan, with an output value of more than 300 billion yuan annually.
The authorities’ ambitious plans for automating the electronics hub have stemmed from concerns over the Kunshan’s recent economic slowdown.
Kunshan has been topped the list China's best “county-level” cities in GDP terms for years, and has attracted large investments from Taiwan electronics manufacturers who supply the likes of Dell, Apple and Hewlett-Packard.