Overactive Chinese manufacturers of smartphones and computers have driven Yaskawa to the point of increasing production capacity by 25 per cent.
Yaskawa says it will increase its monthly output from its current 1,200 units per month to 1,500 units per month to meet frenetically increasing demand from Chinese electronics manufacturers, according to a report on Nikkei.
The increase in capacity will be achieved at Yaskawa’s plant in Jiangsu Province, which is set for expansion towards the end of next year.
The Chinese Institute of Electronics predicts that the domestic market for smartphones, computers and other electronics items will increase by 20 per cent this and reach approximately $6.3 billion.
Industrial robots, as a category in its own right, currently accounts for two-thirds of the broader robots market, and is expected to increase by more than 10 per cent a year through 2020.
Yaskawa is also said to be preparing to launch an industrial robot model that “weighs just 7 kg”, according to Nikkei.
This would probably be the smallest, lightest industrial robot on the market when launched.
Yaskawa is said by some to be the largest industrial robot company in the world.
