Techman Robot Inc (達明機器人), a robotic arm partner of Nvidia Corp, yesterday said it aims to outpace the 20 percent annual growth for the “collaborative robot” (cobot) industry this year, driven primarily from rising demand from southeastern Asia and China.
Techman, a subsidiary of Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), focuses on developing user-friendly robotic systems with integrated vision capabilities. Using artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, Techman’s cobots could recognize the orientation and presence of materials, perform testing and inspection, and dynamically pick and place tasks.
Techman is the world’s No. 2 AI cobot supplier, behind only Odense, Denmark-based Universal Robots. The Taiwanese firm had shipped more than 15,000 AI robots as of September last year.
Photo: Fang Wei-chieh, Taipei Times
“The cobot industry is to grow 20 percent each year. We are targeting more than 20 percent growth this year” in revenue, Techman president Haw Chen (陳尚昊) told reporters on the sidelines of a forum in Taipei.
Techman’s sales posted annual growth of 17.54 percent to NT$1.48 billion (US$45 million) last year from NT$1.26 billion in 2023. The cobot market is expected to expand at an annual compound growth rate of 20.1 percent from this year to 2030, market researcher Mordor Intelligence forecast.
The Asia-Pacific region is to be the growth engine of the company, especially Southeast Asia and China, Chen said.
A majority of Techman’s robotic arms or robotic systems are adopted in industrial automation such as in vehicle manufacturing plants, electronics manufacturers, machinery companies and warehouses, the company said.
The US market is a new growth driver and is expected to see steep growth this year, Chen said.
Last year, Techman set up a warehouse in Indiana to store spare parts in collaboration with its customers and established a hub in El Paso, Texas. The company also has sites in Mexico, along with many other local manufacturers allocating production to the country amid the US-China trade dispute, he said.
Techman does not expect new trade policy from the incoming administration of US president-elect Donald Trump, such as heavy import tariffs, to have adverse impact on its business, Chen said.
“We have to provide on-site services to our customers,” Chen said, adding that the company is following the steps of its customers’ expansion overseas.
CHIP WAR: Tariffs on Taiwanese chips would prompt companies to move their factories, but not necessarily to the US, unleashing a ‘global cross-sector tariff war’ US President Donald Trump would “shoot himself in the foot” if he follows through on his recent pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese and other foreign semiconductors entering the US, analysts said. Trump’s plans to raise tariffs on chips manufactured in Taiwan to as high as 100 percent would backfire, macroeconomist Henry Wu (吳嘉隆) said. He would “shoot himself in the foot,” Wu said on Saturday, as such economic measures would lead Taiwanese chip suppliers to pass on additional costs to their US clients and consumers, and ultimately cause another wave of inflation. Trump has claimed that Taiwan took up to
A start-up in Mexico is trying to help get a handle on one coastal city’s plastic waste problem by converting it into gasoline, diesel and other fuels. With less than 10 percent of the world’s plastics being recycled, Petgas’ idea is that rather than letting discarded plastic become waste, it can become productive again as fuel. Petgas developed a machine in the port city of Boca del Rio that uses pyrolysis, a thermodynamic process that heats plastics in the absence of oxygen, breaking it down to produce gasoline, diesel, kerosene, paraffin and coke. Petgas chief technology officer Carlos Parraguirre Diaz said that in
SUPPORT: The government said it would help firms deal with supply disruptions, after Trump signed orders imposing tariffs of 25 percent on imports from Canada and Mexico The government pledged to help companies with operations in Mexico, such as iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), shift production lines and investment if needed to deal with higher US tariffs. The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday announced measures to help local firms cope with the US tariff increases on Canada, Mexico, China and other potential areas. The ministry said that it would establish an investment and trade service center in the US to help Taiwanese firms assess the investment environment in different US states, plan supply chain relocation strategies and
WASHINGTON POLICY: Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs are tipped to hit shipments of small parcels, cutting export growth by 1.3 percentage points The decision by US President Donald Trump to ban Chinese companies from using a US tariff loophole would hit tens of billions of dollars of trade and reduce China’s economic growth this year, according to new estimates by economists at Nomura Holdings Inc. According to Nomura’s estimates, last year companies such as Shein (希音) and PDD Holdings Inc’s (拼多多控股) Temu shipped US$46 billion of small parcels to the US to take advantage of the rule that allows items with a declared value under US$800 to enter the US tariff-free. Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs would slash such