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“The Chinese robot market will continue to grow this year.” Qu Daokui, vice chairman of Shenyang SIASUN Robotics (300024.SZ), said on September 2 at the 2022 China Robot Industry Development Conference. He also serves as the chairman of the Robot Branch of China Machinery Industry Federation.

Qu Daokui said that since 2013, China has become the world’s largest Industrial robot market for nine consecutive years, and it is also the fastest growing market. “Under optimistic circumstances, the growth rate of China’s robot market will reach 8%-10% this year.” He said.

According to data from the China Robot Industry Alliance, the Chinese Industrial Robot market sold a total of 271,000 industrial Robots last year, a year-on-year increase of about 50%. The robot density was 322 units per 10,000 workers, more than double the world average.

Qu Daokui told Jiemian News that although the robot market has been affected by supply chain shortages due to the epidemic this year, the strong trend of market demand will not change. He believes that the continuous development of new energy vehicles in the future will bring a very good market growth space for the robot industry. At the same time, with the arrival of aging, industries such as service robots will usher in major opportunities.

In the first half of this year, affected by factors such as epidemic control and rising raw material prices, the operating performance of the robotics industry was generally under pressure. In the face of changes such as the epidemic and uncertainties in the global political economy, leading companies in the industry are still relatively optimistic.

You Wei, general manager of Eft (688165.SH), said at the above meeting that in the future, the robotics industry will still have more opportunities than challenges, because the epidemic is only a phased impact, and in the long run, machine replacement is still just needed.

Liu Yuchuan, co-founder and vice president of Huichuan Technology (300124.SZ), believes that although machine substitution is a major trend in the future, companies cannot be limited to this.

Liu Yuchuan pointed out, “The relationship between machines and people is not a complete substitute. It is hoped that new technologies will bring more new development space to the robot industry in the future.”

In You Wei’s view, in the face of challenges such as the epidemic and global economic uncertainty, the robotics industry should strengthen the synergy of the industrial chain. For example, various robot manufacturers can form unified standards on core components, reduce repeated investment, and make Chinese robot products more cost-effective.

Liang Rui, President of ABB’s Robotics Business Unit in China and Global President of the Electronics Business Unit of the Robotics Business Unit, holds the same view. He said that the global economic recession and inflation have led to a sharp rise in raw material costs. In the past year, factors such as shortage of core components and increased transportation costs have had an impact on the company.

Liang Rui said that although the supply chain of ABB’s robotics business in China is relatively complete, it is still unable to achieve 100% local supply. In the future, how to strengthen the coordination of the industrial chain and supply chain and improve the delivery capacity will be a problem worth thinking about.

Zhang Jing, general manager of Zhejiang Huandong Robot Joint Technology Co., Ltd., pointed out that for domestic core component companies, they are currently facing a good opportunity. “In order to meet the current rapid development of domestic robots, the sales of core components are constantly matching the growth of domestic brands.” He believes.

According to data from the China Robot Industry Alliance, last year, domestic independent brand industrial robots sold 87,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 50%, higher than the industry average.

Zhang Jing believes that core component manufacturers must firmly do basic research and systematically understand products in order to gradually solve the problem of stuck necks in the domestic robot industry.