“Robot installations declined by 5% to 37,807 units in 2018,” confirms Junji Tsuda, president of the IFR. “Both, the electrical/electronics industry and the automotive sector reduced installations; together they account for 82% of total demand.”
South Korea is affected by the US-China trade dispute, but there could be positive as well as negative effects. By way of example, although China is an important export destination for Korea´s intermediate products, and could therefore result in decreasing demand from China, Korean products might substitute Chinese products.
Currently, however, the South Korean economy is in troubled waters. Declining demand for electronic products and announcements of investment reductions by major electronics companies point towards another year of decreasing robot installations.
In the long run, the extensive use of robots is vital in order to maintain competitiveness. Korea’s population is ageing rapidly. By the middle of this century, it will have one of the oldest populations of all OECD countries, just behind Japan, Italy and Greece. In 2050, more than one third of the population will be over the age of 65, while around half of all workers will be aged 50 and over.
This demographic helps to explain why South Korea has already embraced robots, particularly in its manufacturing sector, where robot density ranks second in the world, behind only Singapore. With 774 industrial robots per 10,000 employees, the Republic of Korea has more than twice the number of Germany (third with 338 units) and Japan (fourth with 327 units).
The Workforce Development and Training Act, updated in 2019, is one important initiative in a series of government-driven programmes. People get support to develop skills in handling robots and automated machines. Furthermore, the Smart Manufacturing Innovation Strategy announced the build-up of 50,000 smart factory workers by 2022, while the Third Robot Basic Plan, with a runtime of five years, will support the training of 2,200 workers for SMEs by 2023.
