n NEWS October 2025 www.drivesncontrols.com 10 THE NUMBER OF INDUSTRIAL robots installed in the UK last year plunged by 35%, from 3,800 in 2023 to 2,500. The figures come from the International Federation of Robotics, which points out that the 2023 figure was a one-off peak (51% higher than in 2022), driven by the “super-deduction” tax credit scheme, which ended after the first quarter of 2023. The UK now ranks rank 19th globally in terms of robot installations. Many industrial countries recorded declines in the number of robots they bought last year. Across Europe there was an average 5% drop, with six of the EU’s top ten vehicle-producing countries recording double-digit declines. The largest, Germany, experienced a 25% fall in automotive robot sales, while the Czech Republic, the third-largest car-maker, recorded a 28% fall. France, in fourth, had a 41% decrease, while in Slovakia (fifth) orders plunged by 75%. Italy (sixth) fell by 11%, while Romania (seventh) halved its orders. The IFR stats (published in its World Robotics Report 2025) show that 542,000 industrial robots were installed worldwide in 2024 – more than double the number ten years ago. Annual installations exceeded 500,000 for the fourth year running, buoyed up largely by sales in China. According to IFR president, Takayuki Ito, the number of robots installed globally in 2024 was the second-highest ever and was only 2% lower than the all-time-high two years ago. “The transition of many industries into the digital and automated age has been marked by a huge surge in demand,” he reports “The total number of industrial robots in operational use worldwide was 4,664,000 units in 2024 – an increase of 9% compared to the previous year.” China was by far the world’s largest market in 2024, accounting for 54% of global deployments. It installed around 295,000 industrial robots last year – the highest annual total on record. For the first time, Chinese robot-makers sold more machines in their home market than foreign suppliers, taking a 57% share – up from about 28% a decade ago. China’s operational robot stock now exceeds two million – the world’s largest fleet. Across Europe, industrial robot installations fell by 8% to 85,000 in 2024 – but this was still the second-highest number in history. Demand benefited from the trend to nearshoring. Germany remains Europe’s largest robot market, and the world’s fifth-largest. But installations fell by 5% to 26,982 in 2024. This represents 32% of the European market. The number of installations in Italy, Europe’s second-largest robot user, fell by 16% to 8,783. Spain is now in third place (5,100), with a strong demand from the automotive industry. France (4,900) slipped to fourth place, with the number of robots it purchased dropping by 24%. Cobots (collaborative robots) are slowly making inroads into the industrial robot market, with 64,542 being sold last year – representing 11.9% of all industrial robot sales. In 2017, just 11,107 cobots were sold, representing just 2.8% of the robot market. Despite the substantial publicity that humanoid robots have received in recent years, the IFR reports that there have been few commercial deployments yet, and that true multipurpose humanoids are still “far off”. The IFR reports that there is no indication that the long-term growth in the robotics industry will come to an end any time soon. While regional trends vary substantially, the aggregate global trajectory remains positive. Globally, robot installations are expected to grow by 6% to 575,000 in 2025. By 2028, the 700,000-mark will be passed. New robot installations in the UK plummeted by 35% in 2024 SIEMENS HAS LAID THE cornerstone for a €500m Technology Campus in Erlangen, Germany, which, among other things, aims to develop a new generation of converters and controls that will steer the movements of systems and machines even faster, more precisely and more efficiently. The campus is part of a €2bn global investment strategy that the company unveiled in 2023, half of which is being spent in Germany. The Technology Campus will make Erlangen “the worldleader in technology activities for the industrial metaverse” – the virtual environment in which technologies such as AI and digital twins are used to simulate, test and optimise processes, products and systems digitally before they are implemented in the real world. In the first phase of the campus, a 7,000m2 centre for logistics, services and flexible automation, employing up to 300 people, will be built by 2027. In a second phase, a development and innovation hub for power electronics, combined with space for manufacturing, will be added. This is due to be completed by 2030. Siemens’ existing facilities in Erlangen develop and manufacture components for industrial automation and digitalisation technologies. Around 3,000 people work in production, research, development and administration in the area. €500m technology campus will work on a new generation of controls Chinese dominance of the global market for industrial robots is clear from this graph which shows 2024 sales in the ten biggest markets (in 1,000s of machines shipped) and their growth since 2023. Source: World Robotics 2025
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