Interest of Chinese manufacturer Midea home appliances in the leader of German Kuka robot was accompanied by a series of hysterical statements by local politicians, Angela Merkel during her visit to China, said that she would not interfere with Chinese investment, but instead would like to encourage German capital to be more active.
As reported by Reuters, the Chinese side is ready to provide Kuka as autonomous in decision-making and to ensure the immutability of certain conditions until 2023. In particular, the Chinese do not undertake to reduce Kuka employees, not to transfer the headquarters and not to close the existing enterprises. Kuka's shares will continue to trade on the Frankfurt Exchange. The Chinese are willing to pay for the required package about $ 5 billion. Among the motives of Chinese investors is publicly called only promotion Kuka robotic products in the home market.
Source Reuters referring to industry analysts also said that in the coming years will rapidly develop market-assistant robots that will not replace the production staff completely, but will replace human labor in the monotonous operations. These assistants will be compact enough to be placed on the bench, and they will be able to lift loads weighing up to 10 kg, and the cost of their purchase will not exceed $ 10,000.
Now the capacity of the entire market does not exceed $ 116 million., But by 2025 it will reach $ 11.5 billion. Representatives of Kuka believe that by 2020 will represent a decisive effect on the market. The rate of growth of the market of industrial robots fell from 29% to 12% last year, so the need for further expansion of more affordable category of robotics.