China's Factories Turn to Robots to Turbocharge Manufacturing

Over past decade, number of industrial robots has increased more than 6 times to over 1.7m

- Joyce ZK Lim

GUANGZHOU - When Mr Sun Huihai first began working at a factory in the southern manufacturing belt of Guangdong some 13 years ago, his colleagues were all humans.

Now, they are joined by more than 200 robots that can work around the clock, seven days a week, to help produce air-conditioners for home appliances giant Midea.

Rows of bright orange robot arms whir at all hours of the day, fishing freshly pressed plastic parts out of hot metal moulds and onto a long conveyor belt.

Driverless robots with blinking lights store these parts in a multi-storey warehouse, and later take them to be assembled into units that are sold in China and around the world.

The number of robots put to work on the factory floor increases every year, said Mr Sun, 37, who heads the plant's engineering department.

"Every day, we think about how to upgrade and make manufacturing here more intelligent," he told The Sunday Times.

Scenes like this have become more common across China, as the "factory of the world" turns to robotics to sustain and turbocharge its manufacturing juggernaut.

Over the past decade, the number of industrial robots on China's factory floors has increased more than six times to over 1.7 million, as companies grappled with rising wages and a shortage of workers willing to staff production lines.

China now has the world's third-highest density of robots in its manufacturing industry, trailing South Korea and Singapore in first and second place respectively, according to the International Federation of Robotics' figures for 2023, the latest available.

Their deployment is poised to increase further as China continues its transition from low-value, labour-intensive production to advanced manufacturing — a national priority.