(Yicai) April 1 -- UbTech Robotics said the Chinese company plans to scale up its production capacity by 100 times so as to make 1,000 humanoid robots this year, after growing annual revenue by 24 percent last year.

The developer of Walker S1 androids plans to turn out around 500 humanoid robots for industrial use and another 500 for other uses, excluding emotional support robots, which are still in development, founder Zhou Jian said during the firm’s earnings briefing on March 30.

“If we can deliver a few hundred or even 1,000 units this year, then mass production and delivery scales for next year will be even larger,” said Zhou, who is also UbTech’s chairman. “My goal is to produce between 5,000 and 10,000 units next year.”

Zhou noted that after two years of development, humanoid robots have moved toward real-life deployment, particularly in manufacturing. After training in car factories, they are now expected to be deployed in more complex environments, he said, adding that Dongfeng Liuzhou Automobile has been in talks with UbTech this year to buy 20 units.

UbTech had revenue of CNY1.3 billion (USD180 million) in the 12 months ended Dec. 31, its annual earnings report showed. The Shenzhen-based company’s net loss narrowed 8 percent from the previous year to CNY1.2 billion.

Humanoid robots are not yet a major revenue source for the company. Last year, UbTech produced only 10 humanoid robots, generating around CNY35 million (USD4.8 million) in revenue, according to Chief Financial Officer Zhang Ju.

At this stage, breaking even is not the most important goal for UbTech, Chen Jianquan, head of investor relations, told Yicai. Integrating humanoid robots into real-world applications is the greater goal, he said.

The bill of materials cost for a single industrial humanoid robot is about CNY500,000 (USD68,800), Zhou revealed.

UbTech’s shares [HKG: 9880] climbed by as much as 5 percent in Shanghai today before closing up 1.5 percent at HKD79.75 (USD10.30) each, extending the stock’s year-to-date gain to more than 50 percent.

Editor: Emmi Laine