The Qidong branch of Hanwha Group has doubled its productivity and halved its manpower used on production lines with the help of flexible robots.

Manual welding is labor-intensive and time-consuming. It needs over 70 workers for welding and a maximum of 2,000 modules can be produced per day. However, 2,500 modules can be produced through machines and robots, and only five workers are needed for some simple operations.

In 2010, Hanwha Group, a Fortune Global 500 enterprise, began its development in the photovoltaic industry. It has been introducing automatic production lines and robots in recent years, and thanks to these, the number of employees has dropped from 12,000 to 5,000 and the manufacturing cost has decreased from $0.49 per watt to $0.39 per watt.

During its 10-year development in Nantong, Hanwha has made increases in capital and share price 10 times, with total value of $1.35 billion in the Qidong branch. In 2019, it invested around $130 million in technical transformation.

The company has developed a complete industrial chain involving photovoltaic manufacturing and its sales revenue reached 3.83 billion yuan ($539.6 million) in 2019, ranking among the world's top 10 photovoltaic module manufacturers.

The chairman of the Qidong branch of Hanwha said that the company chose to invest in the county-level city due to its favorable location and convenient transport links. It takes only one hour to get to Shanghai Pudong International Airport from the company's premises. Also, the local government offers helpful and efficient services to the company.