Market environmentThe worldwide e-commerce market had a scale of 2.84 trillion U.S. dollars as of 2018, and is expected to grow at a double-digit pace on a year-on-year basis until 2021, according to Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. E-commerce delivery centers need to have a high throughput to meet their function of delivering a very large number of items to numerous consumers with high speed and high precision. Accordingly, systems are becoming larger and larger. An increasing number of distributors that run retail stores are moving into e-commerce, resulting in a need to streamline their logistic operations in response to a rise in physical distribution volume. In addition, it is now vital to address labor shortages and curtailed working hours in the distribution and manufacturing sectors. To this end, automation and unmanned operation are essential.InitiativesDaifuku’s technical strategy focuses on the development of fully automated material handling in distribution centers and factories. To meet strong demand from customers to provide robots for picking and other processes, we are working to steadily expand the scope of automation Daifuku can provide. In pursuing our regional strategy, we will localize our technologies and products developed in Japan at the technology levels required at different locations. We will enhance production frameworks in the U.S., China, South Korea, Thailand and India in an effort to succeed in a fiercely competitive market. A U.S.-based subsidiary has commenced construction of a new plant—slated for completion at the end of 2019—to increase overall production capacity and ratio of local production. In April 2019, we also acquired an India-based material handling system manufacturer. We will build up not only our technical capabilities and cost competitiveness, but also our sales strength towards cultivating customers within all the regions we operate. With respect to services, we will provide Smart Logistics. With enhanced operational quality based on the introduction of IoT, AI and other cutting-edge technologies, the smart logistics system features speed, accuracy, uninterrupted operation and instant recovery from unexpected failure. Systems incorporating these features are sought by customers.Daifuku Korea (Incheon)Daifuku Thailand (Chonburi)Vega Conveyors and Automation (Hyderabad)Wynright (Indiana)Scheduled for completion at the end of 2019Daifuku Co., Ltd. Shiga Works (Japan)Daifuku (China) Manufacturing (Shanghai)Global production sitesGlobal B2C e-commerce market(Trillion U.S. dollars)5032142021202020192018201720161.851.852.302.302.842.843.453.454.144.144.884.88Forecasts from 2019 onwardForecasts from 2019 onward(CY)L B2C e-commerce salesSource: eMarketer, November 2018 (Travel and event tickets excluded)Source: Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry 25Daifuku Report 2019
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