Views: 0 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2025-05-29 Origin: Site
On May 23rd, Qu Daokui, the President of the China Association for Integrated Mechanical and Electrical Technology, gave a wonderful report at the 15th China International Robot Summit Forum on insights into the challenges and development of Chinese robots.
1. Market size and proportion
From a global perspective, China has become the largest robot market in the world. The top five robot countries in the world are China, Japan, the United States, South Korea, and Germany, with China alone accounting for 51% of the global robot market, far exceeding the sum of the other four countries. From 2013 to 2023, the domestic robot market in China has undergone a rapid development stage. From 2013 to 2016, the average annual growth rate was close to 40%; Although there was a slight decline from 2017 to 2020, the average annual growth rate still exceeded 16%; In 2021, there was a significant rebound with a growth rate of 56%, but there was a continuous downward trend in 2022 and 2023. The development of robots is closely related to the national economic situation, and their production, manufacturing, and usage quantities almost represent the level of industrial development of a country. The ups and downs of the Chinese robot market are in line with the overall trend of the economic situation.
2. Development of independent brands
Domestic brand robots have made significant progress in the past decade. From a quarter in 2013 to nearly half in 2023, not only has the proportion increased significantly, but the absolute value has also achieved a huge growth from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of units. This achievement marks a significant improvement in China's robotics industry in terms of independent innovation, production and manufacturing capabilities, and market application capabilities, and also reflects the preliminary results of China's Intelligent Manufacturing 2025 strategy. The global robot density is 162 units, and China's robot usage density has reached over 400 units, ranking among the top in the world, further highlighting the rapid development trend of China's robot industry.
3. Current situation of each link in the industrial chain
Despite the large overall market size, Chinese robotics companies are facing varying degrees of difficulties in various links of the industry chain.
Whole machine enterprises: As the main force of the robot industry, industrial robots have a bleak business situation for their whole machine enterprises. Enterprises that focus on the production of complete robots are generally facing the dilemma of declining profits or even losses. As the core driving force of enterprise development, the lack of profit poses enormous challenges to innovation and sustainable development.
Component companies: Although the situation in the component sector is slightly better than that of the whole machine, it is difficult to be optimistic. Companies purely engaged in the production of robot components are also facing the embarrassing situation of weak growth and declining profits. Upstream component companies should have benefited from the development of the robotics industry, but they have not yet achieved the expected prosperity, with sluggish overall growth and numerous development difficulties.
Integrated application enterprises: In the integrated application link of the robot industry chain, the business situation of enterprises is also worrying. From the perspective of year-on-year growth rate, most enterprises are showing a downward trend, and their net profits are also not ideal. Enterprises with lower relevance to robots actually perform better, while those focused on robot integration applications face greater challenges. This phenomenon indicates that the market for robot integrated applications has not been fully explored, and the business model and market demand need to be further explored and optimized.
Service robots and special robots: The service robot market has performed slightly better compared to industrial robots, but profit issues remain prominent, especially in the field of AI technology innovation. Enterprises with stronger technological innovation capabilities often perform worse in the market, reflecting that the service robot market has not yet formed a mature business model and profit mechanism. Similarly, the market for special robots is not satisfactory, with a significant decline in overall growth rate and difficulties in business operations. Although service robots have performed relatively well in the 2C end, the 2B end market still lacks highlights, and special robots are also facing similar challenges. The overall market outlook is not optimistic.
Related companies in the automotive industry: The automotive industry is an important application market for robots, but in the context of the rapid development of new energy vehicles, the operating conditions of related robot companies are not ideal. The performance of listed companies is still like this, and the situation of non listed companies is even more unimaginable. This indicates that the application of robots in the automotive industry has not fully realized its potential, and there is a significant gap between market demand and corporate profitability, posing enormous challenges to the entire industry.
