Hon Hai is developing a new generation of production robots

Beijing Time August 21, Hon Hai Chairman Terry Gou said recently that Foxconn is lagging behind in the process of automating production lines, but the company is developing a new generation of robots.

Mr Gou said that once the company broke the bottleneck in manufacturing key technologies for robotics, the target of deploying 1 million robots would soon be achieved, and Mr Gou believed October would be the target.

In July 2011, Hon Hai's chairman, Terry Gou, had said that he planned to deploy 1 million robots in three years, the target of July 2014.

Recently, some IT companies have given up on manufacturing, and Mr Gou says Foxconn will not quit the manufacturing industry. Ultimately, he says, manufacturing will shift to automation and robotics to a large extent, with Foxconn focusing on research and development, technology and E-commerce in the future.

Foxconn, which has invested in nanotechnology, has long been developing and acquiring patents, and Mr Gou expects the company to become a leading manufacturer of nanotechnology in 3-5 years.