Financial and Technology News

UNRELIABLE WORKFORCE:Orders from clients in China have surged in the face of labor shortages and high employee turnover rates, Delta chairman Yency Hai said.

Delta Electronics Co yesterday said it plans to increase the number of sales outlets for its industrial robots in China, South Asia and Europe in the next three years in view of the growing potential for industrial automation.

“We plan to increase the sales outlets in China from 50 to 100 in the next two to three years,” Delta chairman Yency Hai told a news conference at the company’s booth at the Taipei International Industrial Automation Exhibition at the Nangang Exhibition Hall.

The company entered the industrial robotic industry in February last year when it introduced its selective compliance assembly robot arm (SCARA) DRS40L series, which entered the Taiwanese and Chinese markets over the past year.

Delta has sold more than 2,000 industrial robots since it launched the series, exceeding its forecasts, as Chinese companies struggled with labor shortages and high employee turnover rates, Hai said.

Orders for Delta’s industrial robots surged significantly in China over the past year, he said.

“For example, one of our clients used to place orders for three to five industrial robots at a time, but that has increased to 100 robots,” Hai said.

Manufacturers in other markets also see the need to adopt industrial automation, which has prompted Delta to expand its reach into Southeast and South Asian markets, such as India, this year and might extend to Europe in the second half of next year, he said.

Sales contribution from the industrial automation segment increased to between 11 percent and 12 percent of the company’s NT$52.66 billion (US$1.69 billion) revenue in the second quarter, Hai said.

The company’s industrial automation segment might reach its peak this quarter and next quarter, based on orders from clients, Delta senior vice president and Industrial Automation Business Group general manager Simon Chang (張訓海) said.

As the industrial automation segment has become Delta’s major growth driver, Hai said sales and profitability contribution from the segment will continue to grow in the coming years.

Delta yesterday unveiled the latest series of its SCARA robots and a new articulated robot, the DRV70L/90L series.

The articulated robot, which is being installed in the production lines of Delta’s manufacturing plant in Wujiang District of Suzhou, China will be available for sale in Taiwan and China by the end of this year, the company said.

Shares of Delta yesterday rose 2.42 percent to NT$169 in Taipei trading yesterday, outperforming the TAIEX, which lost 0.75 percent.