Korea’s robotics industry is picking up steam as government-led pilot programs are spurring sales and exports, while carving out new niches in the fledgling market.
About 200 Korean robotics firms are expected to have generated at least 2 trillion won ($1.77 billion U.S.) in output last year, an official at the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said Monday, citing preliminary data. The ministry plans to release the final figures as early as June.
The tally is up about 12 percent from 2010 and more than 240 percent from 2008.
The ministry attributed the upbeat results to a 2011 pan-government scheme to cultivate robotics as one of the country’s key growth industries.
The country had been shoring up the burgeoning industry by investing 75 billion won since 2002. But the funds were mostly channeled into developing assembly robots, officials said.
In last year’s pilot programs, robots were deployed for small-scale manufacturing, teaching, firefighting, demining, sewage repairs and patrolling danger zones, among other tasks.
In another development, Ilshim Global in August sealed two deals worth 4.4 billion won with Euroboats of Germany and Ezicom of France to supply a combined 20,000 units of window cleaning robots.
Other companies such as Yujin Robot, Gaha and ED are discussing exports with clients in countries like New Zealand, Finland and Denmark after demonstrating their products for health care and education services at nursing homes there.
“The programs helped Korean firms open up new markets, branch out abroad and boost the use of robots across industries,” the ministry said in a statement.
Seeking to expedite commercial production and induce more private investment, the economy ministry said it plans to select other promising developers for the 22.4 billion won initiative.
Korea Herald
0 comments:
Post a Comment