KITAKYUSHU, Japan, Dec. 21 (Kyodo) — Yaskawa Electric Corp. said Wednesday it will open its first overseas robot manufacturing subsidiary in China in February to meet growing demand for robots in the local auto industry.
The subsidiary, Yaskawa's fifth plant in China, will produce and sell welding robots for auto assembly on a 500,000-square-meter site in the eastern province of Jiangsu.
The new plant will start commercial operations in March 2013 to produce 2,400 units in its initial year and boost output to 6,000 units in the third year.
Yaskawa plans to employ about 200 people at the subsidiary, which will be capitalized at around 1.8 billion yen.
