China become world’s biggest industrial robot mkt for two consecutive years by 2014

Stockholm, May 22 (Greenpost) — About 57,000 industrial robots were sold in China in 2014, up 55 percent year on year, and accounted for a quarter of world’s total robot sales, making China world’s biggest industrial robot market for two years running, according to statistics released by China Robot Industry Association (CRIA) on Thursday.

Specifically, domestic enterprises sold 16,945 industrial robots in 2014, up 76.6 percent year on year; and foreign enterprises sold about 40,000 industrial robots, up 47 percent year on year.

By varieties, multi-joint robots took up the dominant role in China, with total sales of 36,000 units in 2014, up 42 percent year on year. Foreign brands held the lions’ share, while sales of home-made multi-joint robots witnessed a rapid growth of 68 percent year on year.

Domestic industrial robot producers showed advantages in coordinate robots, accounting for over 50 percent of their sales last year.

Experts from the CRIA said domestic enterprises should accelerate in upgrading themselves to medium- and high-level to produce more multi-joint robots, and should fully tap segmented markets. (Edited by Hou Yujie, houyj@xinhua.org)

Xinhua