July 30, 2007 -- Fanuc Ltd and other Japanese manufacturers of industrial robots and machine tools plan to sharply increase output in a bid to tap growing demand worldwide, the Nikkei reported over the weekend. Japanese firms now have about half the global market for industrial robots and about 30 percent share in machine tools, the business daily said, without citing sources.
Fanuc will invest several billion yen in a robot factory at its headquarters in Yamanashi Prefecture to expand assembly line capacity next fiscal year, the Nikkei said. That will increase the monthly capacity there to 3,000 units from the current 2,000. Yaskawa Electric Corp will lift monthly output at a Kitakyushu factory to 2,000 units by the end of fiscal 2008 from 1,400, the report said.
Kawasaki Heavy Industries, which ranks fourth or fifth in the market for these robots, will build a new factory in Hyogo Prefecture next fiscal year to boost its monthly capacity by 50 percent to 1,500 units, according to Nikkei.
Source: AFX Asia
Source: Factiva
