Swiss firm ABB to build $150m robotics plant in Shanghai

Company’s single largest robotics facility in the world will produce the full range of ABB’s products from small payload robots to big ones that can lift a car

FILE PHOTO: Chief Executive Ulrich Spiesshofer of Swiss power technology and automation group ABB gestures as he addresses the company's annual shareholder meeting in Zurich, Switzerland, March 29, 2018. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo
Powered by automated translation

ABB will invest $150 million to build a robotics factory in Shanghai, as the Swiss manufacturer capitalises on China’s rising consumption and aspiration to transform into a technology pioneer.

This new factory will set out to “shape the next generation of manufacturing, the next generation of capacity,” chief executive  Ulrich Spiesshofer said in Shanghai on Saturday.

Production is expected to begin by the end of 2020 and annual capacity will be around 100,000 robots, or one quarter of its global demand last year, Mr Spiesshofer said. The Shanghai plant, located in the Kangqiao area, will be the Swiss company’s single largest robotics facility in the world, producing the full range of ABB’s products from small payload robots to large ones that can lift an entire car, according to Mr Spiesshofer.

_______________

Read more:

EU aims to create robot army to take on US and China

Will 'cobots' become the workers' new best friends?

_______________

The Shanghai factory will also include a research and development centre in artificial intelligence and machine learning. The R&D centre and the factory “combined will position us strongly in a competitive environment”, said Mr Spiesshofer, who is visiting China for the sixth time this year.

Zurich-based ABB’s share price has been on a losing streak after its third-quarter earnings missed estimates on slower demand growth from the Middle East and U.K. Operations in China, now ABB’s second-largest market with annual sales at $6 billion, outperformed the overall business with 13 percent growth in total orders.

ABB also signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Shanghai government on Saturday to support the city’s industry, energy, transport and infrastructure, according to a statement.