SHANGHAI, CHINA - One of the leading countries in manufacturing is anticipating a rapid rise in robot demand in the next couple of years.

A slimming workforce is boosting the need for automation, according to a Wall Street Journal report, with projections hitting a want for as many as 150,000 robots by 2018.

“China is saying, ‘we have to roboticize our industry in order to keep it,’” Stefan Lampa, Chairman of the Robotics Division of Kuka AG, a German automation firm and a supplier to Shanghai-based Suzhou Victory, told WSJ.

WSJ notes that it isn’t only the number of robots China wants that is shifting, but the style as well. As we in the fresh produce industry are acutely aware, the demand for automation with precision and flexibility is growing, and China is much the same.

Contributing factors to the rising wave include a slimming workforce and a rise in hourly wages.

Suzhou Victory Precision Manufacture Co.’s Chairman, Yugen Gao, told the news source that a slimming workforce is a byproduct of the country’s one-child policy, began to formally phase out in 2015 after more than 35 years in place.

Additionally, China’s labor costs per hour, including benefits, has more than doubled percentage-wise in the last 15 years, according to WSJ.

Now, as of 2013, International Federation of Robotics reports that China’s is one of the world’s largest markets for industrial robots as automation costs become less of a concern. Last year, the country’s manufacturers bought almost a quarter of the global sales of robots at 67,000.

“We have to consider investing in robots so that the company can survive longer,” Gao said to WSJ, which noted that his company signed on with Kuka for 160 jointed-arm robots this year.

As you may have read in our sister publication, The Snack Magazine, Kuka’s North American arm is designed to be light, fast, and powerful, already being incorporated into the automation side of fresh produce.

Now it looks like that reach has more room to extend as manufacturing markets continue to seek efficient technologies. AndNowUKnow will continue to report on this and other high-tech developments that could have a hand–mechanized or otherwise–in the future of our industry.