China installed 354,000 industrial robots in 2025, 59% of all new factory robots worldwide, the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) said on September 24 in its World Robotics 2026 report.
New installations of industrial robots in 2025 by country and China's share of the global total. Source: IFR World Robotics 2026, chart by Statista (CC BY-ND 3.0).
Chinese installations rose 20% y/y, helping lift global installations 11% to a record of around 603,000 units, according to the IFR data as charted by Statista. China put in more than nine times as many robots as the US, which moved into second place with 38,500 units, up 12%.
China's lead keeps widening. Its share of global installations has climbed from 32% in 2016 to 52% in 2022 and 54% in 2024, when it installed a then-record 295,000 units. The robot build-out feeds Beijing's drive to automate its manufacturing base, which already counts more than 43,000 smart factories. Chinese suppliers sold 195,000 of the robots installed at home last year, a 55% share of their domestic market, slightly below the 57% of 2024.
The other big industrial economies fell further behind. Japan's installations dropped 19% to 36,200 units, pushing it into third place, while South Korea installed 30,000 (down 1%) and Germany 25,000 (down 8%). India was the fastest-growing large market, up 15% to 10,500 units.
Europe had a weak year. Installations across the EU fell 11% to 60,500 units, with the car industry cutting its orders by a quarter, The Next Web reported, citing the IFR figures. Germany alone accounted for 41% of EU installations, while Italy fell 11% to 7,800 units, France 8% to 4,500 and Spain 15% to 4,300. Japan's Yaskawa has nonetheless been betting on the continent's east, opening its largest European robotics facility in Slovenia in June.
Global operational stock of industrial robots, 2010-2025. Source: IFR World Robotics 2026, chart by Statista (CC BY-ND 3.0).
The number of robots working in factories worldwide rose 9% to 5.08mn by the end of 2025, more than double the level of seven years earlier and almost five times the 1.06mn in service in 2010. Asia accounted for 76% of last year's installations.
"Industrial automation is progressing at high speed. The new mark of five million robots operational in factories worldwide is more than double the number seven years ago," Heffner said.
The IFR expects installations to grow 9% to 655,000 units in 2026 and reach 806,000 a year by 2029, citing supply-chain resilience, labour shortages driven by demographic change and advances in AI, machine vision and easier programming.
No comments:
Post a Comment