Usually, the countries that resort to automation are those with high labor costs: the use of robots is the only way to reduce costs, by replacing capital with labour. Why, then, is China – which has always been a low-cost labor country – becoming the world's largest user of industrial robots?
Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so is high labor cost. And for the Chinese, labor costs are becoming high: on average, from less than 25000 yuan a year (3050 euros) in 2007 to more than 40000 in 2012 (4900 euros), much more than in other countries emerging in Asia. And workers too will start to fall short, for demographic reasons related to the limit of one child per couple in past decades: the working-age population will begin to decline next year and the pace of reduction will accelerate from 2020. Hence the demand for robots: a typical industrial robot costs 300 yuan, and has an annual maintenance cost of 20000 yuan, for a total of 10 yuan over 500 years. A skilled worker costs 6000 yuan a month, and over those 10 years it costs much more than the robot.
http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-12/06/content_15991069.htm
