An automated vacuum cleaner highlighted China’s market potential for service robots, outselling a Xiaomi mobile phone to be one of the 10 most popular products during the Singles Day shopping extravaganza earlier this month. That was the message Vice-President Li Yuanchao delivered on Monday in Beijing at the start of the three-day World Robot Conference, part of the country’s drive to overhaul its manufacturing sector and move up the value chain. President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang also sent messages to the conference, underscoring the leadership’s ambitions for industrial robots and intelligent manufacturing to help drive the economy. READ MORE: ‘World’s first’ robot kitchen cooks for visitors at CES Asia in Shanghai The event, organised by the China Association for Science and Technology and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, includes a forum, an exhibition and an international robot competition for teens. Addressing the conference, International Federation of Robotics president Arturo Baroncelli said China was the world’s biggest robot market, with 56 per cent of total sales last year. Chinese interest in robotics took off in earnest after 2008 as manufacturers grappled with a labour shortage and looked for ways to cut costs. Investment has grown with a range of tax breaks and incentives for automation companies and buyers. But China is still far behind in its ability to design and make its own high-end robots, Wang Tianran, director of the National Engineering Research Centre on Robotics, told the conference. “A 2013 IFR report on China’s robot industry said the sector was not innovative,” Wang said. “It’s also small and not as competitive as those in other developed countries. That is a fair assessment.” Wang’s comments are echoed by other industry experts. Luo Jun, head of the government think tank the International Robotics and Intelligent Equipment Industry Alliance, said China may have been the world’s biggest market for industrial robots since 2013 but none of the 500 or so domestic manufacturers had a distinct competitive advantage in core technology. Luo said most robot makers and local authorities had been short-sighted, opting to invest in existing technology or simply set up industrial parks to attract overseas manufacturers. On top of that, profits are falling for manufacturers of industrial robots in Guangdong as demand dwindles amid slowing growth. LXD Robotics, one of the biggest robot makers in the province, has halved its forecast for annual output this year. “Competition has become fiercer and fiercer,” LXD Robotics salesman He Zexian said. “Most manufacturers of industrial robots have been forced to engage in a price war.”
