◦ According to the GGII (Germany High-Tech Industry Research Institute), a research institute for emerging industries in China, demand for processing and handling robots in China's industrial robot market is expected to increase for three consecutive years from 2021 to 2023.
– The demand for transport robots and welding robots fluctuates depending on their detailed functions, while the demand for painting robots and assembly/disassembly robots is decreasing overall.
– Looking at the detailed fields where demand has increased, demand for transport robots, including robots for measurement, inspection, and testing, loading robots, packaging, sorting, and transfer robots, and handling robots, has increased for three consecutive years from 2021 to 2023.
– Among welding robots, demand for laser welding robots has increased for three consecutive years
– Among processing and handling robots, demand for laser cutting robots, water jet cutting robots, polishing and burring robots, and other processing robots has all increased for three consecutive years.
◦ Looking at imports, China's imports of mobile robots from January to June 2024 amounted to $1 million, showing a significant gap with the imports of other types of industrial robots, making it the largest.
– Following this, China’s import amounts were large for other industrial robots, collaborative robots, and laser welding robots, with import amounts of $2032 million, $1725 million, and $85, respectively.
– China’s mobile robot imports are the largest from Germany, accounting for 21%, followed by Switzerland at 15.1%, Japan at 14.7%, and Korea at 8.1%.
◦ Among the major robots imported by China from January to June 2024, the robot with the largest import value from Korea is the laser welding robot.
– The amount of laser welding robots imported by China from Korea was 38 dollars, accounting for 44.4% of China’s total laser welding robot imports.
– In terms of sales volume in China, the sales volume of laser welding robots is only 2022% of the total welding robots in China in 4.7, which is significantly lower than that of arc welding robots and spot welding robots.
– In order to expand the export of industrial robots to China, it is necessary to increase the export of other industrial robots, such as mobile robots and assembly robots, which are large import items for China.
◦ According to GGII, Chinese brand robots will account for 2023% of industrial robots sold in China in 52.5, surpassing foreign brands for the first time.
– The robot with the largest sales share of Chinese brands is the collaborative robot, with Chinese brands accounting for 89.0% of all collaborative robots.
– Next, the sales proportion of Chinese brands of horizontal multi-joint robots, parallel robots, and multi-joint robots was 58.3%, 56.2%, and 46.0%, respectively.
◦ China's industrial robot industry is mainly developed in the southeastern regions, including Guangdong Province, Jiangsu Province, Zhejiang Province, and Shanghai.
– By region, the Yangtze River Delta region has the most complete industrial robot value chain, centered around Shanghai, Jiangsu Province, Zhejiang Province, and Anhui Province.
– In the Pearl River Delta region, robot body manufacturing companies are concentrated in major cities in Guangdong Province, such as Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Dongguan, and Foshan.
– Compared to the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta, the Beijing-Jinji region has a small market size for industrial robots and scattered resources, but has developed advanced robot industries such as medical robots and special-purpose robots.
◦ Looking at the trends in China's industrial robot market, as China's domestic production policy accelerates, there may be limitations on our companies increasing their market share in a short period of time.
– Our company is competitive in new technology fields such as AI smart sensors, precision sensors, and high-precision, ultra-small core components, so we can target niche markets.
– Specifically, we can consider the advanced industrial robot market through product performance upgrades such as industrial robot motion control technology, control system technology, and autonomous driving sensors.
– As factory automation in China increases, demand for AI technologies such as computer vision and machine learning is also increasing, so AI companies can also enter the Chinese market by collaborating with industrial solution platform companies.
◦ Our companies wishing to enter the Chinese industrial robot market can contact KOTRA and local Chinese robot associations to find suitable buyers.
– Secondly, you can participate in China’s major industrial exhibitions and robot exhibitions to contact agents who source robot parts and main bodies.
– In the case of foreign companies, it is difficult to directly contact end users in various industries, so it is effective to find an agent specializing in building an automation system that provides both customer service and technical service and sourcing industrial robots to attack the market.