Chinese Robot Manufacturing Set to Reach 120,000 Units in 2017

Chinese robot makers manufactured more than 100,000 industrial robots in the first 10 months of this year, according Chinese state news agency Xinhua. The growth indicates a massive increase in output of 70% compared with the previous year according to the agency. Annualising the figure for the first 10 months indicates the total production is likely to surpass 120,000 in 2017 with further increases expected in 2018. Xinhua is quoting statistics from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The Chinese government has made domestic manufacturing of industrial robotics and automation technologies one of its highest priorities under the so-called “Made in China” programme, launched a couple of years ago. The market volume of China’s industrial robots is expected to reach $4.2 billion in 2017 and increase to $5.9 billion in 2020, reports Xinhua. Even though there has been a sharp rise in domestic robot manufacturing, foreign brands such as Fanuc, Yaskawa and ABB are all still bullish about the market, all three of them have announced plans to increase production capacity there over the last few months.