China’s robotics revolution falls behind target as technology gap with rivals Japan, Germany persists

Robots made by Chinese companies accounted for about 39 per cent of the domestic market last year, according to Shenzhen Gaogong Industry Research

Beijing’s ‘Made in China 2025’ plan set a target for local robot manufacturers to supply half of the domestic market by 2020 and 70 per cent by 2025

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Robots produced by Chinese companies made up about 39 per cent of the domestic market last year. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 1:00pm, 20 Feb 2021Updated: 11:25pm, 20 Feb 2021

China’s robotics industry has fallen behind targets set out by Beijing in a plan to upgrade the industrial sector, despite production surging 19.1 per cent last year, research shows.

China buys and builds more industrial robots than any country, but its market is still dominated by Japanese companies, followed by manufacturers from Europe and South Korea, according to data from Shenzhen Gaogong Industry Research (GGII).

Robots produced by Chinese companies made up about 39 per cent of the domestic market last year, while Chinese computer chips were used in 45 per cent of locally-made machines, up from 12 per cent in 2016, according to the market research firm.

Beijing’s “Made in China 2025” plan, a strategy to upgrade the nation’s industrial sector and cut reliance on foreign technology, set a target for local robot manufacturers to supply half of the domestic market by 2020 and 70 per cent by 2025, by which time local robotics systems should be “perfected” to compete with global rivals.

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Lu Yuanzhang

While the plan has since been sidelined, Beijing still sees it as a key element in modernising the nation’s manufacturing through technological innovation to offset soaring labour costs amid a shrinking work force.