Fanuc limits sales as it struggles to deal with too many orders

Fanuc is struggling to cope with the number of orders it is receiving so it is placing some limits on sales, according to a report on Nikkei. 

The world’s largest robot maker is benefitting from the rapid growth in demand for robotics in automation systems worldwide, especially in China.

As a group, Fanuc is expecting profits to increase by 37 per cent in the current fiscal year, rising to $1.83 billion. 

Fanuc chairman and CEO Yoshiharu Inaba is said to be “eager” to expand further, particularly in Europe, but for now, the company is operating at full capacity.

“Production is at full capacity so sales are capped. We can’t make any more,” Inaba tells Nikkei.

Sales of Fanuc industrial robots increased 20 per cent in the latest quarter compared with the same quarter last year.

The company is building a new production facility in Ibraki, north-east of Tokyo, at a cost of $550 million, which is expected to be operational by next year.

When that new plant is online, Fanuc production capacity is expected to almost double from the current 11,000 units a month.

Inaba says high levels of investment in infrastructure and increasing automation in China is driving robot sales.

He says that while there has been more competition from Chinese makers of automation equipment such as computer numerical control systems, “with our level of technology, we are well place to rival them”.