Visitors talk to Jiajia, a humanoid robot developed and created by scientists from the University of Science and Technology of China, during the World Economic Forum in June. (Photo : Getty Images)
The robotics industry in Tianjin is expected to produce a total of 60,000 robots annually, which is worth about 12 billion yuan ($1.8 billion) by 2020, according to a forecast by the Tianjin Municipal Commission of Industry and Information Technology.
Robots made in Tianjin have attracted much attention that last month, an underwater robot made by a local company that cleans the bottom of ships, won a prize at an innovation contest and became popular, China Daily reported.
"The working efficiency of the underwater robot could be enhanced by three times compared with manual work. The robot can be widely applied to large ships, propellers and precision instruments for offshore exploration," Zhang Yang, general manager of Tianjin OSTAR Underwater Vehicles Co Ltd, said.
Zhang said that they have received orders from China National Offshore Oil Corporation and China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation. He added that the annual sale of the robot is expected to reach 16 million yuan, which account for about 80 percent of the company's total annual sales.
Currently, there are more than 100 companies that make robots in Tianjin, which is worth about 3 billion yuan, with a capacity to produce more than 1,000 robots.
Robots have been used by traditional companies with labor-intensive work to lower labor costs and develop the high-end manufacturing industry.
A unit of Markor Furniture Group, which is located in Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Area, said that it had reduced labor costs by 50 percent with the use of robots.
"The robot industry in Tianjin is to be a new springboard for economic growth based on the advantages of a strong local industrial foundation," Li Chaoxing, director of the Tianjin Municipal Commission of Industry and Information Technology, said.
According to the International Federation of Robotics, sales of industrial robots climbed 17 percent in China in 2015, slightly lower than the 56 percent increase in 2014.
China accounts for more than a quarter of the 248,000 industrial robots sold globally.
