Observations from China’s Welding Trade Show
By Graham Fry for technoweld.com.au
After recently returning from a major welding trade show in China, I’ve had time to reflect on some pressing global trends in the metal fabrication and welding sectors. As someone who’s fortunate enough to work across various continents, it’s clear that the challenges – and the direction of progress – are becoming increasingly shared, though not equally overcome.
A Global Shortage: Skilled Fabricators Are Hard to Find
Regardless of where you go – whether it’s Australia, New Zealand, China, Vietnam, or elsewhere – the same concern echoes through workshops, training centres, and trade show conversations: we simply cannot get enough skilled people into the metal fabrication and welding industries.
Younger generations are steering away from trades, despite the growing demand and solid career prospects. The exploration of ‘why’, is another conversation completely, we will visit that later. In China and Vietnam, despite their massive populations, businesses are grappling with the same labour shortages we face here in Australia. Ageing workforces, societal shifts away from trades, and the sheer physical demands of the job have created a vacuum that no one country has managed to fill effectively.
China Is Moving – Fast – Toward Automation
One of the standout takeaways from this recent visit to China was the rapid uptake in welding automation and mechanised systems.
Gone are the days when China was synonymous only with low-cost manual labour. The booths and halls were filled with everything, simple mechanisation equipment, advanced welding machines, compact robot / cobot welding systems, reimagined old welding technology and adaptive welding solutions designed not just for large-scale manufacturers, but now increasingly tailored to medium-sized operations. China’s transition is strategic – automation is no longer a luxury; it’s a necessity to maintain productivity in the face of shrinking workforces.
And it’s not just about big corporations. Even family-run workshops in industrial parks are starting to invest in differing levels of automation and or mechanisation to keep pace with efficiency, rising demand and quality expectations.
Australia Is Falling Behind
What struck me most – and it’s something we need to talk about more at home – is the widening gap between Australia and countries like China, Korea, and parts of Europe in terms of mechanisation and automation in metal fabrication.
In Australia, many workshops are still reliant on manual welding and conventional setups. While our tradespeople are world-class and known for their skill and adaptability, we’re losing the global race for productivity and scalability. Too often I walk into fabrication shops and everyone says, ‘we can’t get people’, yet they failed to recognise their systems and processes are seriously inefficient, outdated and have not been optimised.
This isn’t about replacing people – it’s about supporting them with better tools and systems. Automation and or mechanisation doesn’t eliminate jobs; it elevates them, allowing welders to focus on quality and critical thinking rather than repetitive tasks.
The Cost Barrier in Australia
So why aren’t more Australian fabricators jumping on board with automation?
Simple. Cost. The landed cost of automation and mechanisation in Australia is often prohibitively expensive. Between shipping, duties, integration services, and compliance upgrades, the total investment required to bring in even basic automation can put it out of reach for many SMEs.
Other factors are lack of volume of similar components, lack of trained programmers and lack of understanding of what is out there.
This is where countries like China have a significant edge – not only are their machines competitively priced, but local support, spare parts, and integration expertise are readily available and affordable.
Final Thoughts
As a welding engineer who’s worked from Adelaide to Germany, and now recently back from Asia, the message is clear: we need to act decisively and collaboratively in Australia if we want to remain globally competitive in the metal fabrication industry.
That means:
- Optimise existing processes through the use of knowledge, equipment and know-how.
- Change the face of the industry and provide genuine career pathways.
- Fix the ‘competency based’ training system, to ensure people coming out of training are competent.
- Push for more ‘relevant’ accessible funding, subsidies, and training pathways for SMEs to adopt technologies.
- Stop the ongoing systemic waste of available government funding going to ‘AR training solutions’ based more on corporate gain than industry outcomes.
Embracing automation as a tool, not a threat. The industry is evolving, and the question is whether we evolve with it — or get left behind.
Graham Fry is the founder and Principal Welding Engineer of Technoweld, based in Australia and operating globally. With a career spanning over three decades, Graham brings firsthand insights into welding technology, workforce development, and industrial change.
Contact Technoweld now on 1300 00 WELD (1300 00 9353) or email info@technoweld.com.au to discover how we can assist in optimising your business operations.
