China’s robot sales to grow 20pc this year but boom times are over

The mainland Chinese robotics industry is expected to see about 20 per cent growth this year, similar to last year’s level but down from the high rate of growth seen in 2014, according to industry insiders and analysts.

About 80,000 industrial robots are expected to be sold on the mainland this year, up 20 per cent year on year, according to forecasts from two industry guilds, the GG Robotics Research Institute and the China Artificial Intelligence Robot Industry Alliance.

Growth in the industrial robot market on the mainland slowed in 2015, with sales up 16 per cent year on year to about 66,000 units, compared with the more rapid year-on-year growth of 55 per cent in 2014 to 57,000 units.

In the first 10 months of this year, a total of 56,604 industrial robots were sold in China, according to the latest figures from the National Bureau of Statistics.

There were several impediments to robot industry growth this year that prevented it from reaching the levels of 2014, said Zhang Xiaofei, founder of the GG Robotics Research Institute. “The manufacturing market is tough in China this year following an economic slowdown, while costs for those domestic industrial robot makers remains high because of the lack of development of technology breakthroughs in core components for mass production.

“Government incentives such as subsidies are not as attractive and generous as 2014 and earlier last year,” he said.