Manufacturing automation to drive China’s robotics spending to US$59b by 2020, says IDC

Annual spending on robotics in mainland China is forecast to continue its rapid expansion and exceed US$59 billion by 2020, as demand ramps up in the country’s manufacturing industry.

The mainland will remain the single largest and fastest-growing robotics market in the world, accounting for more than 30 per cent of global spending during that period, according to a report released Tuesday by technology research firm IDC.

“China continues to lead the growth of worldwide robotics adoption, primarily driven by strong spending growth in process manufacturing and cross-industry applications,” said Zhang Jing Bing, IDC’s research director for worldwide robotics and Asia-Pacific manufacturing.

Robotics expenditure on the mainland is projected to hit US$59.4 billion in 2020, more than double the estimated spending of US$24.6 billion last year. That would make up about half of the Asia-Pacific’s US$133 billion in forecast robotic spending in 2020.

Those numbers are based on robotics spending across 13 industries on the mainland. The categories included are commercial and consumer purchases of drones, robotics systems, and related hardware, software and services.

IDC estimated that more than 50 per cent of annual robotics spending on the mainland is for so-called discrete manufacturing, which is the assembly-line production of distinct products like cars and smartphones, and so-called process manufacturing, which is the production of goods in bulk quantities like food, beverages and semiconductors.