Window into the future

Slides
Photos

By Liu Ce and Lu Haoting (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-29 08:17

Walking through the SIASUN factory floor, you would be forgiven for thinking you were on a futuristic movie set. The scene is one of wall-to-wall robots, from the metal giants only seen in science fiction comic books to 60-cm-tall talking toys.

The reality is the automation company's base in Shenyang, Liaoning province, highlighting the real progress China is making in its transformation from the world's factory into a high-tech producer.

Window into the future

SIASUN Robot & Automation Co Ltd is one of 28 companies that will start trading tomorrow on ChiNext.

"The initial public offering (IPO) will not only provide an opportunity for SIASUN to grow faster, but also boost the development of China's robot industry," said company president Qu Daokui.

The enterprise, launched in 2000, controls more than half of the industrial robot market in China and has been made a "national engineering research center on robotics" by the National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Science and Technology.

Sales hit more than 800 million yuan ($117 million) last year and the company plans to issue 15.5 million shares at 39.8 yuan each.

Qu, 48, hails from Shandong province and studied at the Shenyang Institute of Automation under Jiang Xinsong, who is regarded as the "father" of robotics in China. But it was not until he continued his studies in Germany in the early 1990s did he fully appreciate the wide potential for robots in industrial manufacturing.

He returned to China in the mid-1990s determined to develop automation technology in China. "SIASUN came about because of my personal interest in robots and a sense of responsibility," said Qu, whose staff said his management style is more as a researcher than a chief executive.

Companies from Europe, Japan and the United States once dominated the Chinese market, but imported robotic equipment often failed to fully meet the needs of domestic manufacturing firms. China's leaders were eager to reduce the country's dependence on imported robots and, when SIASUN was launched, the Shenyang Institute of Automation held a controlling 48-percent stake.

A savvy scientist-turned-entrepreneur Qu saw opportunities in China's fast growing automobile market and initially focused on developing robots for the car industry. A production line with an annual capacity of 100,000 to 200,000 cars needs about 600 robots.

The domestic auto market has experienced rapid growth in recent years and overtook the US as the world's largest in January. Despite the global financial crisis, the country's vehicle sales surged 34 percent year-on-year to almost 10 million units in the first nine months, reported the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

Capital raised by the IPO would be used to develop not only new industrial robots but also intelligent service robots for home use, added Qu, the winner of several national science and technology awards.

(For more biz stories, please visit Industries)