Kitakyushu-based Yaskawa Electric and Chinese electrical appliance manufacturer Midea Group have formed a business alliance aimed at enabling Midea to adopt Yaskawa’s industrial robots and sell its service robots in China. The companies will set up two joint ventures in the Guangdong province. The first one will be established in October 2015 and engage in the industrial robots business, while the second will follow in March 2016 and focus on the service robots business. China is currently facing a growing need for automation in manufacturing and other industries amid a decline in its working population and surging labor costs, and demographic trends (societal aging and declining birth rate) are expected to generate demand for robots in nursing care and rehabilitation. Yaskawa aims to leverage Midea’s sales network to strengthen its sales power in the Chinese market.
