Chinese restaurants, industry develop taste for robots (2)

Industrial robots, with more sophisticated designs than Jinhe Noodle Shop's chef, are entering Chinese factories to take on jobs like welding, painting, ironing and packaging.

"Next year, China is expected to become the world's biggest robot market, with demand for 32,000 industrial robots," according to Zhao Jie, an expert on the subject for China's "863 Program," a state high-tech initiative.

"Chinese companies usually start considering robots when the payment for a skilled worker exceeds 50,000 yuan (8,060 U.S. dollars) a year," said Tan Xueke, a manager of the Xinsong Robot Automation Company in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province.

Tan has the math. A welding robot, for example, can replace the work of three welders. A welding robot currently sells for 150,000 yuan (24,100 U.S. dollars), equal to one year's pay to three welders.

"As a robot can serve for three to five years, it is obviously an economic alternative," said Tan.

As for threats to Chinese jobs, experts say it all depends how fast engineers bring down the cost of robots, and meanwhile, how fast China's labor force shrinks.

Five years ago, a welding robot sold for 500,000 yuan (80,600 U.S. dollars), more than three times their price now, according to Tan.

China experienced a rare decline in its labor force in 2012, the number of working-age people (15-59 year olds) in the country decreasing by 3.45 million to 937.27 million. The trend of an ageing population is set to pose challenges to the world's second-largest economy.