Apple’s Chinese manufacturer to rely on a million robots to build iPhones

HONG KONG/TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group, known for assembling Apple’s iPhones and iPads in China, plans to use more robots, with one report saying the company will use one million of them in the next three years, to cope with rising labor costs.

Foxconn’s move highlights an increasing trend toward automation among Chinese companies as labor issues such as high-profile strikes and workers’ suicides plague firms in sectors from autos to technology.

Contract manufacturers such as Foxconn, which also counts Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Nokia among its clients, are moving parts of their manufacturing to inland Chinese cities or other emerging markets.

They are also boosting research and development investments to lift their thin margins.

“Workers’ wages are increasing so quickly that some companies can’t take it longer,” said Dan Bin, a fund manager at Shenzhen-based Eastern Bay Investment Management, which invests in technology and consumer-related shares in China and Hong Kong.

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