In Recent Two Years, The Domestic Robot Industry Three Development Trends

In the spring of 2023, all walks of life begin to gather momentum and gradually heat up after three years of bleak epidemic. As a powerful weapon of automation transformation, robots are accelerating into the golden age.

Once the global industrial robot market, the "four big families" occupy a monopoly position, today's industrial robot market, the world to see Asia, Asia to see China. Looking back over the past two years, what trends have emerged in the domestic robot industry?

Trend 1: Globalization is accelerating

Since the pandemic, the global labor market has quietly undergone a dramatic shift. The frequent "labor shortage" has led more and more enterprises to turn their attention to robots. According to the International Robotics Association, the North American robot market grew well in the first quarter of 2022, with companies from the United States, Canada and Mexico ordering 11,595 industrial robots, up 28 percent year on year, and revenue rising 43 percent to $664 million. In 2021, the number of newly installed industrial robots in the world reached a record high of 51.7, up 31.2% year on year.

And Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea and other countries and regions, the demand for industrial robots is also strong. Data showed that the manufacturing PMI of Britain, France and Germany in May were all higher than the critical point of 50, reaching 54.6, 54.5 and 54.7 respectively, at a high expansion stage. Manufacturing PMIs for Vietnam, India, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines stood at 51.7, 54.7, 51.9, 51.9 and 54.3 in April, respectively, apparently recovering demand as the phasing out of quarantine restrictions led to increased new orders and manufacturers' output. In addition, there are Japan and South Korea. In April, the manufacturing PMI of South Korea was 52.1, and that of Japan was 53.5. The manufacturing economy is still in the expansion stage.

Huichuan, a leading enterprise that sold over 10,000 units of industrial robots in 2021, said in the survey of several institutions that the company defines 2022 as the year of internationalization. The company began to vigorously expand international business and invest personnel and resources into overseas markets. From the perspective of revenue growth, the growth rate of overseas business is expected to be higher than that of domestic business in the next few years. Eston, another company with sales volume of over 10,000 units, has previously announced that it will increase its promotion to overseas markets, aiming to increase the proportion of export revenue to 20%-30% by 2022. It is reported that Eston products have passed CE certification, UL certification, products in Southeast Asia, Europe, America, Australia and other countries and regions have been widely used. Meanwhile, Eston has a number of wholly-owned or holding companies abroad, including a branch in Malaysia set up last year, as well as Trio in the UK, Cloos in Germany and M.A.i. The company, the Italian research and development center and the participation of Barrett in the United States, etc., have laid a solid foundation for the company to fully implement the international development strategy.

Trend two: Quality products play a key role

The product quality of imported brand robots can be seen from the sales of second-hand robots. Many second-hand robots that have been in service for more than 10 years can still fight for a few more years after maintenance. Domestic robot must do the following principles, in order to let the domestic robot into the usable state: adhere to the forward design, the mechanical and mechanical characteristics of the machine to do full simulation and practical verification, to ensure the performance and reliability of the robot; Improve the performance evaluation model, failure analysis, life cycle model of the whole robot and core parts, and establish first-hand data; Perfect robot industry and enterprise standards, establish quality assurance system and strictly abide by; Perfect robot use and maintenance training and service system.

All of these jobs are hard work, tiring and time-consuming. Foreign robot manufacturers in the 1990s through this process, domestic manufacturers can not cross, can only go again. At present, more and more domestic robot brands have realized this problem and started to work on product quality.

Industrial robots are on the incremental track, and quality products will become the protagonist. Before the epidemic, the development direction of robots was dominated by upward technological innovation, and a series of new domestic brands were born, whose keywords often included "innovation", "upgrade", "quality" and so on. Intelligence determines that users tend to intelligent and high-end consumption, so "intelligent manufacturing" and "product quality" have become an important direction that cannot be ignored in the robot category in the post-epidemic era. For example, in the field of cooperative robots, safe, intelligent and flexible production of cooperative robots are predicted to have further growth space.

From the perspective of technological innovation, new technology and new categories of robot products have more potential for growth. From the perspective of product structure, high-quality robots are easier to accumulate customer groups, and will also be the cornerstone of the market in 2023. In the long run, intellectualization is the trend, but it will not be achieved overnight. Some dealers and integrators will also choose products with more guaranteed quality to serve the needs of customers.

Under the transition and upgrading of the global manufacturing industry, robot application scenarios and market demand are rapidly expanding. The reliability and stability of products will be the basic guarantee to ensure the full application of robots in more scenarios. Many domestic robot brands are committed to reducing the threshold of robot use, and through safe, efficient, reliable and stable product solutions, We will promote the application of robots in more industries.

Trend 3: Big rivers produce big fish

The first full year since the release of the 14th Five-Year Plan for the robot industry has come to an end. China's robot industry has experienced an extraordinary year in 2022, despite more frequent outbreaks of COVID-19 and greater downward pressure on the economy. Not only has the robot club achieved the expansion of 10,000 units, but also the robot export breakthrough. As the domestic robot industry has grown by leaps and bounds, overseas giants have been forced to invest more in China.

In terms of product form, Xiaomi and Tesla have released humanoid robots to excite the market. With the deepening of population aging, in addition to industrial applications, the application of robots in various service scenarios is also expected to be high. In 2022, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles continues to rise, the production expansion tide of lithium batteries drives the price of lithium carbonate to remain high, and the production expansion of photovoltaic industry is also in full swing.

Since the third quarter of 2013, Auto robot, a subsidiary company of Eft, has not only obtained orders totaling about 254 million yuan from FCA Group, a subsidiary of Stellantis Group, involving the purchase of front body, rear body and bottom production lines of pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in Melfi factory in Italy. In addition, we also received a purchase order from Volkswagen Group for the welding line of ID.3 pure electric vehicle body floor and rear wheel cover in Wolfsburg, Germany. The total amount of the project is estimated to be about 241 million yuan (32.9 million euros). Eston, Huichuan Technology, Hanchuan Intelligent, Rison Technology, Juyi Technology and other enterprises from the new energy vehicle orders have also seen significant growth.

In terms of shipments, local robot companies made another breakthrough in 2022. Eston and Huichuan Technologies, which shipped more than 10,000 industrial robots last year, continue to make good progress, with Huichuan Technology disclosing that the shipment of industrial robots in the first three quarters has reached about 12,000, while Eston expects the shipment of the whole year of 2022 to reach 15,000. In addition to Eston and Huichun Technologies, Brante has become the third domestic brand to break the annual shipment mark of 10,000 units in October 2022, and is expected to maintain this trend in 2023.

Conclusion and future

With the general trend of the industry and policy dividends, the development of domestic robots is overwhelming. In the uncertain international market competition situation, the broad prospect of robot track is certain. Domestic enterprises can only seize the opportunity of the certainty of robot track by resisting the uncertainty of external environment through their own definite efforts.