安川電機在中国建立世界最大自動機械生産工場

Last month the NHK News on-line reported the following:

人件費が高騰している中国では、製造業の現場で産業用ロボットの導入が急速に進んでおり、日本の産業用ロボット大手の安川電機は、中国・江蘇省に世界最大のロボット生産工場を建設し、操業を始めました。

この工場は、産業用ロボットの分野でトップメーカーの一つ、安川電機が、海外では初のロボット工場として、中国江蘇省の常州におよそ４０億円をかけて建設したもので、２２日、地元政府関係者らを招いて開業式が行われました。
工場は生産台数で世界最大規模で、自動車関連の製造現場で使われる溶接用のロボットなどを最新の設備で生産し、２０１５年度には月１０００台の生産を目指すということです。
中国では、人件費の高騰などを背景に、人に代わってロボットの導入が急速に進んでいて、世界で最も大きな産業用ロボットの市場になりつつあります。
このため、安川電機は、中国を日本と並ぶロボットの製造拠点と位置づけて生産・販売体制を拡充することにしており、津田純嗣社長は「世界でいちばん伸びている中国で確固たる地位を占めたい」と話しています。
産業用ロボットの生産は、ヨーロッパのメーカーと並んで日本のお家芸とも言われており、日本のメーカーでは不二越も、先月、同じ江蘇省で工場の操業を始めています。

(試譯文)

In China where personnel related expenses were soaring, the introduction of the industrial robot was progressing quickly in the area of manufacturing industry; Yaskawa Electric, a major industrial robot company in Japan, built the world's largest robot production plant in Jiangsu of China and began its operation.

This factory was one of the biggest manufacturers in the field of industrial robot. Yaskawa Electric built its first robot factory overseas in Zhangzhou in Jiangsu of China. Having spent about 4 billion yen, the inauguration was held on the 22^nd (June) and the local administration officials were invited.

It was said that the factory was the world's largest in terms of production volume. With the newest equipment, it produced the robots for welding etc. which were used in the automobile-related manufacturing site, and the company aimed at producing 1000 robots in fiscal year 2015.

In China, against the background of having a jump in personnel related expenses etc., instead of people, the introduction robot was progressing quickly, and China was becoming the biggest industrial robot market in the world.

For this reason, Yaskawa Electric regarded China as the production base of the robot on a par with Japan; its production and sales organization were expanded. President Junji Tsuda was saying that "I would like to occupy a steadfast status in China which is having the biggest expansion in the world".

In the production of industrial robot, along with the Europe makers, Japan could also be said that it had its own specialty. Last month Japanese maker Fujikoshi also began operating a factory in Jiangsu.

It seems that despite the recent diplomatic troubles, the Japanese investment in China is continuing.