China’s robot industry ‘plagued by low quality, overinvestment and too much duplication’
Comments by vice-minister of industry and information technology come as data shows mainland bought 66,000 industrial robots last year – more than a quarter of world’s total
China’s robot industry is plagued by low-quality products, overinvestment and too much duplication, a senior technology official has warned.
Although the sector had grown quickly amid efforts to transform China’s traditional manufacturing model into a hi-tech one, there was too much blind expansion and too many low-end products, Xin Guobin, a vice-minister of industry and information technology, was quoted by Xinhua as saying. Industry insiders said most Chinese-made industrial robots performed simple jobs like carrying and loading.
Recent statistics from the China Robot Industry Alliance (CRIA) suggest that more than 60 per cent of some 22,000 industrial robots made by domestic companies last year were low-end models.
Robot manufacturers needed to develop market niches within the industry, rather than simply duplicate what others had done, Xin told an industry summit in Shenyang on Thursday.