Industrial Robotics Trends

[FONT=&quot]In 2017, South Korea had 710 installed industrial robots per 10,000 employees. That is mainly due to the continued installation of high volume robots in the electronics and electric sectors. 90 percent of Singapore's industrial robots are installed in its electronics industry and it comes second with a density of 658 per 10,000 employees. Germany and Japan are renowned for their automotive industries and they have density levels of just over 300 per 10,000 workers. Interestingly, Japan is one of the main players in industrial robotics, accounting for 56 percent of global supply.

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[FONT=&quot]In the United States, the pace of automation is slower with a density rate of 200. China is eager to expand its level of automation in the coming years, targeting a place in the world's top-10 nations for robot density by 2020. It had a density rate of 25 units in 2013 and that grew to 97 by 2017. In 2017, China was already supplying 36 percent of the robots sold.
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In 2017, robot sales increased by 30% to 381,335 units, a new peak for the fifthyear in a row. The main drivers of this exceptional growth in 2017 were the metalindustry (+55%) and electrical/electronics industry (+33%). Robot sales in the automotiveindustry increased by 22% and remained still the major customer of industrial robots witha share of 33% of the total supply in 2017. The electrical/electronics industry has beencatching up, especially since 2015. In 2017, it reached almost the same share of totalsupply (32%). The electrical/electronics industry became the most important customer inalmost all major Asian markets, e.g. China, Japan, Republic of Korea, already in 2016.

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China has significantly expanded its leading position as the biggest market with a shareof 36% of the total supply in 2017 (30% in 2016). About 137,900 industrial robots weresold to China in 2017, 59% more than in 2016. This was considerably more than the totalsales volume of Europe and the Americas together (112,400 units). About 34,700 unitsof robots were sold by Chinese robot manufacturers in China according to the informationfrom the China Robot Industry Alliance (CRIA). Their sales volume was about 29%higher than in 2016 (27,000 units). Foreign robot suppliers increased their sales by 72%to 103,200 units, including robots produced locally by the international robot suppliers inChina. This is the first time that the foreign robot suppliers have a higher growth rate thanthe local ones. The market share of the Chinese robot suppliers decreased from 31% in2016 to 25% in 2017. (For more details see chapter 3.3.1.)

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