China’s industrial robot market is keep growing. According to data released at the 2017 China International Summit of Robotics Industry on July 5, 89,000 units of industrial robots were sold in China in 2016, an increase of 26.6 percent year on year. Specifically, 29,000 units of domestic robots were sold, up by 30.9 percent year on year.
Meanwhile, China’s robot industry will probably keep the sound development momentum this year. According to statistics about orders of member enterprises under China Robot Industry Alliance (CRIA), orders of 43.8 percent of the member enterprises rose by over 30 percent this year, and those of other 43.8 percent of the enterprises surged by 10-30 percent.
China’s industrial robot sector is expected to boom this year, like what happed to automotive industry in 2001, said Xu Lijin, the chairman and general manager of an industrial robot manufacturer Efort Intelligent Equipment Co., Ltd.
“China’s industrial robot sector is at early development stage and it is really not easy to achieve such achievements,” Qu Daokui, chairman at CRIA and president of Shenyang Siasun Robot & Automation told the reporter of 21st Century Business Herald.
Industrial robot market to embrace explosive growth
Global sales of industrial robot expanded by 14 percent to 290,000 units last year, according to data from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR).
“Demand from Chinese enterprises is expected to drive the industrial robot market to gain a double-digit growth.” An official report of IFR predicted that although industrial robot market of the whole Asia will embrace explosive growth, 40 percent of global robot sales will be contributed by China market.
Driven by the development of Industry 4.0, industrial transformation and upgrading and adjustment in population structure, China has become the biggest industrial robot market. Seen from this development trend, it is just a beginning.
Based on statistics from IFR, every 10,000 people all over the world use 69 units of industrial robot, while the figure in China is only 49. There’s still huge gap between China and developed industrial countries like Japan, Germany, Korea and the US. Therefore, it is widely believed that China’s industrial robot market boasts vast potential.
“It won’t be a problem that China’s robot market will keep growing in next 10-15 years,” said Qu. Compound annual growth rate of the industry will reach about 19.8 percent in next five years and sales of industrial robots will amount to 210,000 units in 2021, as predicted at www.robotcn.com.cn.
Many manufacturers are all rosy about prospect of the industry. A survey by industrial association showed that orders taken by nearly half of the enterprises hiked by over 30 percent this year and even some manufacturers said they have a lot of orders to deal with.
“The 13th Five-year Plan period and several years till 2025 will be a crucial period for the development of Chinese manufacturing industry,” said Luo Junjie, a senior official from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
Domestic robot industry grows fast
There have been over 40 robot industrial parts and nearly 2,000 robot enterprises in China now, according to data from research institute of Tianxing Capital.
But there’s dispute over standard measuring robot enterprises. Qu said that it is not accurate to say that there are several thousands of robot enterprises. The whole robot industrial chain from upstream, midstream and downstream includes core components, manufacturing of robot body and system integration. But they cannot be called as robot companies generally.
“There are not many companies which are really specialized in robot industry in China. There are less than 10 companies which have their own technologies, design and R&D ability,” Qu said frankly.
Data from Tianxing Capital showed that 16 among the top 20 robot enterprise in the world come from Japan, two from Korea, one from Swede and one from Germany. Active phase of patent application of each of these companies basically keep at over 20 years. However, top 20 applicants in industrial robot field in China are mainly colleges, universities, and scientific research institutions, but only include two enterprises State Grid Corporation of China and Shenyang Siasun Robot & Automation.
But it is getting better now. Statistics from CRIA indicated that domestic multi-joint robot accounted for 21.5 percent of the segment market in 2016, but the figure was only 5 percent several years ago. “China’s robot product experiences rapid development in high-end market,” said Qu.
Translated by Vanessa Chen
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