[Company analysis] Yaskawa Electric Corporation, Limited (安川電機)

「Yaskawa Electric Corporation, Limited (安川電機)」is a company that produces industrial robots and mechatronics products and it headquatered in Kitakyushu City, Fukuoka Prefecture. It has the 4th largest share in the world of industrial robots, and is one of the 4 major industrial robot manufacturers in the world together with「FANUC Corporation(ファナック)」,「ABB」and「KUKA」. Their products are used in a wide range of industrial fields, from semiconductors and liquid manufacturing equipment to machine tools to general industrial applications. The number of consolidated employees is approximately 85,897.

 

1. Company Profile

2. Summary and Features

3. Major Business

4. Financial Information

 

 

 

1. Company Profile

 

※Unit is JPY million, as of 2019

Company name	Yaskawa Electric Corporation, Limited
Company name (Japanese)	安川電機
Date of establishment	Friday, July 16, 1915
Headquarters location	〒806-0004　北九州市八幡西区黒崎城石2番1号
Capital	30,600
Consolidated sales	474,638
Consolidated operating profit	49,766
Consolidated total assets	455,957
Consolidated capital	249,753
Capital adequacy ratio	54.8%
Consolidated number of employees	85,897

 

 

 

2. Summary and Features

 
Yasukawa Keiichiro(安川敬一郎) established「Yasukawa Electric」in 1915 to develop and manufacture electrical products for the「Meiji Kogyo(明治鉱業)」. At the time of their founding, they mainly deal with electric motors as their main products. Now, this company expanded it to the motion control, robot technology, and power conversion technology, and manufacture servo motors, AC motor drives, switches, and industrial robots. Currently,「Yasukawa Electric」has production bases in 12 countries including Japan, and is conducting business activities worldwide through 81 subsidiaries and 24 affiliates.

Owing to the high-growth in Japanese economy of the 1970s, the demand for robots that can work 24 hours a day for mass production is increasing. So,「Yasukawa Electric」decided to start the industrial robot business in 1972. In 1977, they launched an arc welding robot using their own electric motor technology and this got a very good reputation.

 

At that time, the arc welding work is extremely dangerous because it produces toxic gas at high temperatures. Therefore, the demand for alternatives to robots was high. The problem was, the industrial robots of the time were driven hydraulically or pneumatically so the delicate work required for welding was almost impossible. However, the new arc welding robot from「Yasukawa Electric」was controlled by a motor, which was capable of precise movement for arc welding work. So, the following year, they made a big success in this new robot business, and eventually in 2003, they even gained the top share in the world.


Now,「Yasukawa Denki」become a major player in the industrial robot business, developing products with the world's highest level of technical strength. In particular, the movements of robots that utilize AC servo motors and inverters with their own control technology are evaluated as extremely precise. Recently, this company has been working in the medical field and is developing a walking aid for patients with spinal cord injuries.

However, it can be pointed out that it has weakness on software technology, including artificial intelligence technology, because this company was established as a mechanical and electric product manufacturers. In addition, they have high level of engineering technology, but sales or marketting department is relatively weak compare with their competitors.

 

 

 

3. Major Business

 

■ Motion control
They manufacture inverter products required for social infrastructure such as AC servo controllers, large air conditioners, escalators, and elevators that require high precision such as electronic parts and semiconductor parts.

■ Robot
They handle arc welding robots, spot welding robots, handling robots, transport robots for semiconductor / liquid manufacturing equipment, etc.

■ System engineering
They provide engineering services for various plants that require stable operation. As an environment and energy business, they also handle large-scale wind power generation related electrical products (such as generator converters).

 

 

 

4. Financial information

 

※Unit is JPY million

		2016	2017	2018
Consolidated sales		394,883	448,523	474,638
Consolidated operating profit		30,409	54,126	49,766
Consolidated total assets		387,512	441,249	455,957
Consolidated net assets		200,698	238,626	249,753
Breakdown of sales	Motion control business	172,025	212,095	205,423
	Robot business	139,993	163,379	177,995
	System engineering business	59,354	52,934	59,463
	Others	23,509	20,112	31,755