China has been predicted to become a huge player in the robotics game, with the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) saying Thursday that the country will have more robots operating in its production plants than any other nation by 2017.
The non-profit organization said the increase in China's use of robotics will be due to the country's growing use of automation in producing cars and electronics, adding that the operational stock of industrial robots in the country will more than double to 428,000 due to the growing number of automakers looking to build plants in China and wage inflation, according to Reuters.
"Companies are forced to invest even more in robots to be more productive and raise quality," said Gudrun Litzenberger, general secretary of the IFR. "In the current phase it's the auto industry, but in the next two or three years it will be driven by the electronics industry."
China will have a lot to catch up to if it wants to pass other countries in the use of robots at factories, as the country currently used only 30 robots per 10,000 human employees at manufacturing industries. South Korea currently uses 437 bots, while Japan uses 323, Germany uses 282 and the U.S. uses 152.
While Japanese robot makers currently rule the market with about 60 percent, China supplies are catching up with control of about a quarter of the market, with American and European manufacturers controlling the rest, Reuters reported.
China is the world's biggest market and production site for cars, with the automotive industry making up 40 percent of customers for robots from the country.
Litzenberger said Volkswagen, Daimler and other European automakers investing a large amount in China will help the country get more involved in robotics because they will bring their suppliers to China. Electronics companies are expected to do the same.
