China robot unicorn Hai Robotics eyes international expansion as market for warehouse automation cranks up
- Hai Robotics makes robots for moving and sorting boxes in warehouses, a market estimated to reach US$41 billion globally by 2027
- Hai Robotics says its system can replace 60 to 70 per cent of warehouse workers
Shenzhen-based warehouse robot start-up Hai Robotics, which counts Chinese e-commerce giants Alibaba Group Holding and JD.com among its clients, is speeding up international expansion with the goal of having half its business coming from outside China this year, the company’s co-founder told the Post in an interview.
Hai Robotics, founded in 2015, makes robots for moving and sorting boxes in warehouses, a market estimated to reach US$41 billion globally by 2027 amid widespread automation, according to research firm LogisticsIQ. While 70 per cent of Hai Robotics’ current customers are from China, it sees a future outside the domestic market, said Fang Bing, co-founder and chief operating officer.
“We’re in the business of replacing workers with machines, and machines are [correspondingly] more expensive where manual labour is expensive,” Fang said. “So the overall market size for us is bigger overseas, especially when supply chain disruption and labour shortages present big problems for companies around the world.”
As part of this expansion, the company last month reached strategic cooperation deals with Tompkins Robotics and Storage Solutions, two American peers, to jointly develop robots for the US market, according to information on its website.
Hai Robotics, which currently employs 1,600 people, designed its first warehouse robots to be able to pick up and move individual cases used to store goods with its own technology, known as autonomous case-handling robotic (ACR) system. Traditional warehouse automation solutions had mostly used forklifts to transport entire shelves of goods, such as Kiva, a warehouse robotics system acquired by Amazon.com in 2012.
Hai Robotics says its system can replace 60 to 70 per cent of warehouse workers, where their typical function is to walk around a warehouse looking for items. Fang said that it benefits young workers, as they can be freed up from repetitive and labour intensive work.
“It’s hot inside warehouses and the work is strenuous. Workers need to walk up to 60,000 steps every day,” Fang said. “It’s getting harder for warehouses to hire this type of worker as people are less willing to do such work nowadays.”