China supply chains AI edge

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Now, as more and more of these factories turn to technology – such as artificial intelligence and robotics – for cost reduction and quality controls, it will be even more difficult to resist the purchase in China. The potential of AI to transform manufacturing was even highlighted by the capital of venture capital Mary Meeker During the weekend in the first of its technical reports widely followed since 2019.

Chinese companies are impatient to adopt new technologies, and Cybord startups estimates that its quality control tools fed in AI will find big buyers in China this year, said CEO OSHRI Cohen.

Rather than using a generative AI, Cybord applies supervised automatic learning to identify defects according to the models of its manufacturing component database, said Cohen. These faults include counterfeit, defective and falsified components. Last month, the startup announced that it was integrated into factory management systems industrial giant Siemens.

Cohen, who was previously vice-president of the NVIDIA supply chain, expects geopolitical pressures to diversify the supply chains, which makes Chinese factories more competitive. “The factories will return to China,” he said, but unlike the last decade, China will then be “a high quality declaration”.

China has installed seven times more robots than the United States in 2023, representing more than half of the industrial robots installed in the world, according to University of StanfordCiting a report by the International Federation of Robotics.

However, automation levels are unequal, with certain sectors, such as cars, requiring fewer human workers, while production lines such as clothing, always count significantly on hand machines.

Beijing has ambitious plans to further digitize the country’s factories – over the next five years.

China last month published a “Action plan” for the digital supply chain Development by 2030. He called for the use of AI, blockchain and other technologies in manufacturing and agriculture – including a plan to cultivate 100 leaders in the digital supply chain.

The country is already one step ahead.

“When you think of digital transformations and the use of digital automation analysis in manufacturing, Chinese companies are a real force in the world,” said Karel Eloot, a main partner based in Shenzhen at McKinsey.

He stressed that since the World Economic Forum and McKinsey has started to follow factory scanning In 2018, the number of exemplary use cases increased to 189, of which 41% are based in China and have spread to several industries. They include the manufacturer of Chinese devices MIDEA and the Chinese operations of Ge Healthcare, Astrazeneca and Schneider Electric.

The report noted that certain companies, such as Hisense-Hitachi joint venture in Qingdao, China, use a generative AI to reduce the time devoted to ineffective meetings, instead of directing the next change of workers to immediate problems.

The mowled nature of this competition has been fully exposed in recent weeks with another series of electric car price reductions – widely directed by Bydwhich already dominates the market and has aggressively expanded on a global scale.

Byd said in its 2024 annual report that it had started to deploy autonomous mobile logistics robots for manufacturing. The automaker has also invested in robotics companies.

“The supply chains have become so efficient and so competitive from the cost point of view … that if you are in competition, you must be here” in China, Jens Eskelund, president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China, told journalists last week in Beijing.

He said he was concerned about China’s plans to potentially double self -sufficiency, which would likely arouse a reaction from his main business partners. “If you always want to have an achievable relationship with your main business partners, you must also undertake to trade,” he said.

On the software side, the Chinese Alibaba technology giant announced a strategic partnership with the SAP business management system giant last week. The large -scale agreement – which initially concentrates on China – includes the management of the alibaba cloud to SAP supply chain management systemAnd plans to test the integration of the Qwen AI model of Alibaba with SAP applications in China.

Although it is still early, the generating AI can quickly create a large number of design solutions, shortening the time for a product launch, said Glenn Hou, founding partner of China Insights Consultancy. He added that generative AI can improve the efficiency of equipment maintenance and help companies more quickly absorb technical expertise.

“Looking at the following year, the integration of AI and manufacturing should accelerate,” said Hou into Chinese, translated by CNBC. He noted how a combination of data, algorithms and use cases has become a new competitive obstacle to entry for businesses.

US trade discussions and in China in limbo. Washington indicates that US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping could speak this weekBut the Chinese Foreign Ministry does not offer any information. It was after the two countries publicly blamed the other to have violated the commercial truce reached in mid-May.

Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun jumps for Shangri-La dialogue in Singapore. It was the First absence since 2019Although Chinese officials of lower row were present. The American Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, called the absence of China, while urging participants to the summit to repel the military pressure of Beijing in the region.

Leapmotor and Huawei-Affilié Aito deliver record cars in May. New brands of energy vehicles Delivered much over 40,000 cars Each last month, establishing records despite an intensification of the price war of the industry led by the BYD market giant. On the long weekend of the Dragon Boat Festival, official data showed an increase of 5.7% of tourist journeys and a 5.9% increase in related expenses a year ago.

Chinese actions and Hong Kong increased on Wednesday while the Asia-Pacific markets followed a technological gathering at Wall Street led by the flea manufacturer Nvidia.

Continental China CSI 300 added 0.5% while Hong Kong Hang Seng index – which includes large Chinese companies – increased by 0.56% to 2:15 p.m. local time.

The return on Chinese government’s obligations to 10 years of reference is 1.704%.

The Chinese Offshore yuan exchanged 0.04% against the greenback at 7.190 against the greenback.

– Amala Balakrishner