Kawasaki Heavy Industries to expand production in China

According to a report from Nikkei Asian Review, Chinese unit Kawasaki Precision Machinery (Suzhou) will install three new assembly lines by the end of this month for four types of small to midsize units.

Kawasaki began assembling factory robots in Chongqing during the spring. The company also is developing another small robot to be produced in the mainland this fiscal year. Total investments will be held to hundreds of millions of yen (100 million yen equals $902,000).

Chinese manufacturers are rapidly adopting industrial robots amid a dearth of workers and rising labour costs; it is estimated the country will need more than half-a-million industrial robots by 2025.