In the spring of 2023, all walks of life have begun to gather momentum and gradually heat up and return after three years of depression, and as a strong weapon for automation transformation, robots are accelerating into the golden age.

Once the global industrial robot market, the "four major families" occupy a monopoly position, the best industrial robot market, the world to see Asia, Asia to see China. Looking back on the past two years, what trends have been shown in the domestic robot industry?

Trend 1: The process of globalization is accelerating

Since then, the global labor market has quietly undergone a huge transformation. The frequent occurrence of "labor shortage" has led more and more companies to turn their attention to robots. According to the International Association of Robotics, the North American robotics market developed well in the first quarter of 2022, with companies from the United States, Canada and Mexico ordering 11,595 industrial robots, up 28% year-on-year, and revenue up 43% to $664 million. In 2021, the number of newly installed industrial robots in the world reached 51.7 units, a year-on-year increase of 31.2%, a record high.
In Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea and other countries and regions, the demand for industrial robots is also strong. Data show that the UK, France and Germany, the manufacturing PMI in May was above the 50 critical point, reaching 54.6, 54.5 and 54.7 respectively, in a high expansion stage. Vietnam, India, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines had manufacturing PMI values of 51.7, 54.7, 51.9, 51.9 and 54.3 respectively in April, and it is clear that market demand has begun to pick up as the gradual lifting of epidemic prevention restrictions has led to an increase in new orders and manufacturers' output. In addition, there are Japan and South Korea, in April, South Korea's manufacturing PMI value was 52.1, Japan's manufacturing PMI was 53.5, the manufacturing economy is still in the expansion stage, these two countries because of the aging of the population and industrial development, there is a huge demand for robots.
Huichuan, an enterprise with more than 10,000 industrial robot sales in 2021, said in a survey by a number of institutions that the company defined 2022 as the year of internationalization, and the company began to vigorously expand international business, put personnel and resources into overseas markets, and from the perspective of revenue growth, it is expected that the growth rate of overseas business in the next few years is higher than that of domestic business. Another company, Eston, which has sold more than 10,000 units, has also announced that it will increase its promotion to overseas markets, and in 2022, Eston is committed to increasing the proportion of export overseas revenue to 20%-30%. It is reported that Eston products have passed CE certification and UL certification, and their products have been widely used in Southeast Asia, Europe, America, Australia and other countries and regions. At the same time, Eston has a number of wholly-owned or holding companies overseas, including a branch established in Malaysia last year, as well as Trio in the UK, Cloos in Germany, M.A.I. company, Italian R&D center and participation in Barrett in the United States, etc., laying a solid foundation for the company's implementation of international development strategy.
Trend 2: Quality products become the protagonist The quality of
imported brand robots can be seen from the sales of second-hand robots, and many second-hand bodies that have been in service for more than 10 years can still fight for a few more years after maintenance. Domestic robots must do the following principles in order to bring domestic robots into a usable state: adhere to the positive design, fully simulate and verify the mechanical and mechanical characteristics of the whole machine, and ensure the performance and reliability of the robot; Improve the performance evaluation model, failure analysis, and life cycle model of the robot and its parts, and establish first-hand data; Perfect robot industry and enterprise standards, establish a quality assurance system and strictly abide by them; Complete robot use and maintenance training and service system.
All of this work is hard work, tiring work, and time-consuming. Foreign robot manufacturers went through this process in the 90s, and domestic manufacturers could not cross it, but could only go again. At present, more and more domestic robot brands have realized this problem and begun to work product quality.
Industrial robots are on the incremental track, and quality products will become the protagonists. ** The development direction of the former robot is mainly based on upward technological innovation, and a series of new domestic brands have been born, and their keywords often include "innovation", "upgrade", "quality" and so on. Intelligence determines that users tend to be intelligent and the best consumption, so "intelligent manufacturing" and "product quality" have become an important direction that cannot be ignored in the category of robots in the post-** era, such as in the field of collaborative robots, safe, intelligent and flexible production of collaborative robots are predicted to have further growth space.
From the perspective of technological innovation, new technologies and new categories of robot products have more growth potential. From the perspective of product structure, the best robots are easier to accumulate customer groups, and will also be the cornerstone of stabilizing the market in 2023. In the long run, intelligence is a trend, but it will not be achieved overnight, and some dealers and integrators will also choose products with more guaranteed quality to serve customer needs.
Under the global manufacturing industry transformation and upgrading, robot application scenarios and market demand rapidly amplified, product reliability and stability will be the basic guarantee to ensure that robots are fully applied in more scenarios, many domestic robot brands are committed to reducing the threshold of robot use, and through safe, efficient, high reliability, high stability product solutions, promote the application of robots in more industries.
Trend 3: Big rivers produce big fish The
first complete year after the release of the "14th Five-Year Plan" robot industry plan has ended, although 2022** more frequent outbreaks in various places, the downward pressure on the economy is still greater, but China's robot industry has still gone through an extraordinary year. Not only the 10,000-unit robot club has been expanded, but also the robot export has made a breakthrough. With the rapid development of the domestic robot industry, overseas giants have also had to increase investment in China.
In terms of product form, Xiaomi and Tesla have successively released humanoid robots to make the market excited, with the deepening of the aging population, in addition to industrial applications, the application of robots in various service scenarios is also highly expected. In 2022, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles will continue to rise, and the expansion tide of lithium battery production will keep the price of lithium carbonate high, and the expansion of photovoltaic industry is also in full swing.
Since 2022Q3, Auto robot, a subsidiary of EFORT, has not only received orders totaling about 254 million yuan from FCA Group, a subsidiary of Stellantis Group, but also involved the procurement of front body, rear body and underbody production lines of pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles at the Melfi plant in Italy. In addition, the Volkswagen Group received a purchase order for the underbody and rear wheel housing welding line for ID.3 pure electric vehicles at its Wolfsburg plant in Germany, with a total project value of approximately CNY 241 million (EUR 32.9 million). Orders from new energy vehicles from companies such as Eston, Huichuan Technology, Hanchuan Intelligence, Ruisong Technology, and Juyi Technology have also increased.
In terms of shipments, local robot companies will make another breakthrough in 2022. Eston and Huichuan Technology, which shipped more than 10,000 industrial robots last year, continued their efforts, of which Huichuan Technology revealed that the quarterly shipment of industrial robots has reached about 12,000 units, and Eston expects to ship 15,000 units in 2022. In addition to Eston and Huichuan Technology, Brontë has also achieved annual shipments of more than 10,000 units in October 2022, becoming the third domestic brand to exceed 10,000 units, and this situation is expected to be maintained in 2023.
Conclusion and future
With the general trend of the industry and policy dividends, the development of domestic robots is in full swing. Under the uncertain international market competition situation, the broad prospects of the robot track are certain, and domestic enterprises can only seize the opportunity of the certainty of the robot track by resisting the uncertainty of the external environment through their own determined efforts.