China is the world's largest industrial robot buyer

With rising labor costs and increased competition with other emerging economies, Chinese manufacturers have turned to technology to increase productivity. China, once known as the "world workshop," has become the world's largest buyer of industrial robots.

In 2013, China purchased one fifth of the world’s robots, surpassing Japan for the first time. According to the latest data from the International Robot Federation (IFR), China purchased 36,560 industrial robots last year, an increase of 60% year-on-year. Japan purchased 26,015 robots last year, and the United States ranked third, buying 23,679 robots. From 2008 to 2013, China’s robot purchases increased by an average of 36% annually.

The potential growth of the Chinese robot market is more objective: In 2012, China employed 23 robots per 10,000 people in its manufacturing factories, far lower than 396 in South Korea. From the perspective of the number of inputs put into use, China is also far behind developed countries. In 2012, more than 310,000 industrial robots were put into use in Japan, and the number was the world's largest. The number of robots used by the United States in the year was 168,000, and China had only 96,000.

ABB Robotics Director Per Vegard Nerseth told the Financial Times that “China has the fastest growing robot market in the world. In the next few years, the Chinese market will be significantly larger than the second and third robot markets.”

The growth in demand for robots in China is mainly driven by large multinational manufacturers, especially in the automotive industry. According to research conducted by the management consulting firm Solidiance, China has the world’s largest automotive industry, and the industry’s robot demand accounts for 60% of the country’s total.

According to the British "Financial Times" report, global robot companies such as ABB Switzerland, Japan Fanuc, Germany Kuka and so on have all put a lot of resources into the Chinese market to catch up with China's rapid automation trend. In 2011, Foxconn, the founder of Apple, claimed that it would take more than three years to establish a "million-man robot army" to replace the repetitive manual operations of workers.

According to Dieter, head of Asia Pacific, Solidari said that Japan is still the dominant global robot manufacturing, and six Japanese companies sell about half of China’s robots. In contrast, the combined market share of China's four major robot manufacturers is only 5%.