Georg Stieler

The Chinese robotics industry has never been so exciting. Last year, every second industrial robot in the world was sold in China. The market is now setting major trends in industrial automation: first in the manufacture of electronics and now in electric cars, batteries and photovoltaics. Because the country is a leader in these areas, companies there are benefiting from corresponding economies of scale and learning effects.

In recent years, domestic manufacturers have increasingly moved into areas previously reserved for foreign robot manufacturers. One reason for this has been supply chain problems at the international top 4, but also technical advances at some domestic manufacturers.

Compared to Europe and the U.S., there are more engineers available, both on the developer and system integrator side. Together with the local supply chain that has developed in recent years, this enables shorter product cycles and drastically lower costs for machine vision, robots and peripheral products. Due to fierce price competition in their home market, Chinese manufacturers are also increasingly looking abroad. At the same time, the political environment is making the market less and less transparent for foreigners.

This talk will provide insights into the latest developments in robotics in China and what can be expected from there.