Wide-Moat Yaskawa Electric to Face Hurdles as It Attempts to Increase Exposure Outside China

As the global market leader in high-end servo motors and one of the big four industrial robotics companies, Yaskawa Electric has a long-term record of providing its servo control-based solutions to high-end applications for precision machinery. Although other industrial robot companies also produce servo motors for their robots in-house, Yaskawa’s strategy has differed in that external sales of its servo technology to customers across various applications have served a central role for the company. As the company continues to take measures to adapt to the "Industry 4.0" trend and accentuates its strengths in its servo technology, we expect Yaskawa will continue to build on this approach to strengthen its motion-control/robotics businesses and its customization capability comprising its key products going forward.