My understanding is that South Korea is leading in the robotic automation implementation. Any opportunities there?
Car makers are well positioned for this as a lot of car body work (welding, painting) has been fully automated since the 1980s.
Wholly separate thought---Li Auto and other Chinese automakers? They make cars that are better than those in the rest of the world, it seems, and the volumes are huge---any opportunities there?
Yes there are a few Korean equities that are exposed but ultimately I didn't include them in this because the risk/reward was not attractive. Hyundai is probably the most prominent since they acquired Boston Dynamics. I also looked at Doosan Robotics, they are mainly focused on dual-arm coordination and collision-avoidance. For the Chinese automakers similar story, not that they are bad companies or irrelevant it's just the risk/reward isn't great at least by my measures. From my understanding, the Chinese cars are much cheaper and "better" in terms of features/tech, but there are concerns about relative durability though which ties into the quality of the underlying materials.
Can't comment really on the first part. With regard to the Chinese cars---the jury outside of China is out. My understanding is that the concerns you mentioned are not as relevant as they used to be.
My understanding is that South Korea is leading in the robotic automation implementation. Any opportunities there?
Car makers are well positioned for this as a lot of car body work (welding, painting) has been fully automated since the 1980s.
Wholly separate thought---Li Auto and other Chinese automakers? They make cars that are better than those in the rest of the world, it seems, and the volumes are huge---any opportunities there?
Yes there are a few Korean equities that are exposed but ultimately I didn't include them in this because the risk/reward was not attractive. Hyundai is probably the most prominent since they acquired Boston Dynamics. I also looked at Doosan Robotics, they are mainly focused on dual-arm coordination and collision-avoidance. For the Chinese automakers similar story, not that they are bad companies or irrelevant it's just the risk/reward isn't great at least by my measures. From my understanding, the Chinese cars are much cheaper and "better" in terms of features/tech, but there are concerns about relative durability though which ties into the quality of the underlying materials.
Can't comment really on the first part. With regard to the Chinese cars---the jury outside of China is out. My understanding is that the concerns you mentioned are not as relevant as they used to be.