The Hindu Business Line : ABB plans robot manufacturing centre in India

Factfile
ABB has sold about 300 robots in India in the last seven years.
Expects double-digit growth in near future.
Robots help save costs and are a safer, healthier option.

Bangalore , Oct. 6

Sale of industrial robots is gathering pace in India as automobile companies expand their operations in the country.

This has also prompted the inventor of industrial robots and one of the top three global manufacturers of robots, ABB, to consider setting up a manufacturing centre in the country.

"We are open to manufacturing robots in India as it is a fast growing business here," the ABB Executive Vice-President and Head of Robotics Division, Mr Anders Jonsson, told Business Line.

Peripherals

India already supplies peripherals for making ABB robots apart from doing application engineering forthem. ABB already has a plant in China to produce robots to cater to the auto sector there. It has so far sold around 1,000 robots in China. Worldwide, ABB has sold 1.2 lakh robots.

Mr Jonsson said ABB had doubled its employees' strength in India and had set up demonstration centres in Pune, Bangalore and Chennai and service centres in about eight cities. Some of their customers in India include, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra and Samtel.

ABB has so far sold about 300 robots in India in the last seven years. But it expects a double-digit growth from now on because of the rapid expansion of automobile companies.

"Maturity for using robots is growing extremely fast in India," Mr Jonsson said adding robots do not replace jobs as claimed by its critics.

"Customers in India are beginning to understand the usefulness of robots as they not only save costs but are also a safer and a healthier option," he said.

Mr Jonsson said car manufacturers in the US use as much as 500 robots for a single assembly line. "We are in fact trying to stabilise the process of manufacturing robots by producing consistent quality so that we are regarded as reliable suppliers," he said.

He said robots are becoming more intelligent and faster and now come equipped with the ability to see as well. "Manufacturing companies now see it as a must for growth of their business," he said. Revenues from the robotics' division contribute six per cent to the total revenues of ABB, which is around $26 billion.

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