It is predicted that by 2017, with the increase in automation of automobile factories and electronics factories, the number of robots operating in Chinese factories will exceed that of any other country.
Although China is now the world's largest robot market ($9.5 billion in scale; with a matching software, peripherals and systems engineering, the size is $29 billion), it lags far behind in robot density. A country with a higher degree of industrialization.
There are only 30 robots per 1,000 manufacturing workers in China, compared with 437, 323, 282 and 152 in Korea, Japan, Germany and the United States.
As car dealers compete to set up factories in China, wage inflation has reduced the competitiveness of China's labor force. By 2017, the number of industrial robots in the country will double to 428,000.
IFR Secretary-General Gudrun Litzenberger pointed out that “companies are forced to increase investment in robots to improve production efficiency and product quality.”
“At this stage, China's robot market is mainly driven by the automotive industry, but this role will be played by the electronics industry in the next two or three years,” she said.
Japanese robot manufacturers have the highest market share of about 60%, but Chinese suppliers are growing rapidly and their market share has reached around 25%. Most of the remaining market share is owned by European and American manufacturers.
Four overseas robot manufacturers – abb Robotics in Switzerland, kuka in Germany, Yaskawa in Japan and FANUC – have already set up factories in China and are expected to add them in the future.
“The automation process at the Chinese factory has only just begun,” said Per Vegard Nerseth, managing director of ABB Robotics. “In the past two or three years, the market has shown rapid, even near-explosive growth, even exceeding our expectations.”
The automotive industry is still the largest customer base in the Chinese robot market, accounting for about 40% of the number of robots in China. China is both the world's largest auto market and the largest auto producer.
The electronics industry will also catch up with automation. Foxconn is already producing Foxbot's own branded robots and is also using robots from other suppliers.
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