[Bricktop]

Something interesting for all those technocrats methinks..

Worldwide sales of industrial robots has surged to record levels in the first half of 2004 after equipment prices fell while labour costs grew, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).

In its annual survey of world robotics, the UNECE said the number of robots in operation in industry exceeded the 800,000 mark for the first time at the end of 2003.

The growth continued this year with an 18 per cent increase in orders worldwide in the first six months of 2004 compared to the same period last year.

"Falling or stable robot prices, increasing labour costs and continuously improved technology are major driving forces which speak for massive robot investment in industry," said survey author Jan Karlsson.

The motor industry now uses one robot for every 10 production workers, according to the UNECE.

In 2003, the world market for robots grew by 19 per cent to 81,800 units fuelled by broad-based demand, the survey showed.

Sales in Japan, still the world leader in robotics use, rose by 25 per cent to 31,600 units in 2003 while Asian industry's demand increased by an estimated 57 per cent in the first six months of this year.

European industrial demand for robots rose by an average of just 4 per cent last year and has fallen so far in 2004, following a double-digit boom in previous years.

South Korea was the second major user with 138 robots in operation per 10,000 people employed, compared to 322 in Japan, but the UNECE noted that EU countries were catching up.

German (148) and Italian industry (116) remained the second and fourth largest users of robots in the world and their demand grew by more than the European average.

"As robots are made for both increasing capacity and rationalising production, robot investments are made also during periods of economic recession," Mr Karlsson said.

"When the economy recovers, production can then to a large extent be increased without necessarily hiring new labour," he added.

The survey highlighted sharp falls in the cost of robots relative to labour costs in Germany and in North America.

Robotics prices in the United States have fallen on average to about 44 per cent of what they were in 1990 on an index compiled by UNECE.

Meanwhile, indices for labour compensation in manufacturing industry had risen by 63 per cent, according to the survey.

The United States lagged well behind other industrial power house's, with about half the robot density in industry of Europe.

The UNECE forecast that industry's reliance on robotics should continue to grow with 997,000 units in use by 2007.

Just under 350,000 of them will be operational in Japan as industry there maintains a similar level of robot use to today but renews its machinery.

The European Union's stock of operational robots is set to increase from 249,200 last year to 326,000 in 2007, while the United States will have 145,100 units of robotic machinery in factories against 103,515 in 2003.

--AFP

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/20 ... 224293.htm

Drummond