ROBOTS’ROLES CHANGE AS SALES SOAR The latest analysis of the global industrial robot industry by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) reveals that it going from strength to strength, but increasingly dominated by China. In the past five years, the number of robots installed around the world has doubled to more than five million – with China now accounting for 59% of the total installed base. Last year, around 600,000 new machines were added to the world’s fleet of industrial robots – 11% increase on 2024. More than half of these (354,000) were in China – a 20% rise on the previous year’s figure. What’s more, Chinese manufacturers are increasingly turning to homegrown suppliers. More than half (55%) of the new robots installed in China last year came from domestic manufacturers, whose installations totalled 195,000 in 2025 – a 15% rise. The IFR believes that the Chinese market is far from saturation, and expects sales to grow by an average of 5–10% a year in the period to 2029. The figures from Europe are less impressive. Germany is still the world’s fifthlargest robot market, and by far the largest in Europe, accounting for 41% of all of the robots in use in the EU. But German sales fell by 8% last year, to fewer than 25,000. The automotive industry is still Germany’s biggest buyer of industrial robots, but its share shrank to 23% last year (a 17% decline). The number of new installations in Italy, Europe’s second-largest market, fell by 11% to around 7,800. France is in third place with almost 4,500 new robots (an 8% decline since 2024), ahead of Spain with on 4,300 (a 15% decrease). The UK does not get a mention. On the other side of the Atlantic, things look rosier with the US overtaking Japan to become the world’s second-biggest user of industrial robots. The US installed 38,400 robots in 2025 – 12% more than the previous year, and exceeding Japan’s 36,200 new installations in 2025 (a 19% drop from 2024). End-uses for robots are changing too, with automotive applications becoming a smaller part of the market. In 2015, the automotive sector was the biggest buyer of robots, accounting for 38% of all robots sold that year. By last year, its share had shrunk to 23% – even though the number of robots bought by the sector actually grew from 97,533 to 138,429 over this period. Cobots (collaborative robots) still represent a fairly small share of the total industrial robot market, dipping from 11.5% in 2024 to 11% in 2025. The number of cobots sold rose from 62,136 in 2024 to 66,240 last year. Although nearly 7,000 humanoid robots were sold worldwide in 2025, the IFR says we are still at the stage where humanoids are moving from the lab to pilot projects. They face major challenges in terms of safety and reliability, a shortage of training data, and a lack of a viable business case. The Federation has identified 174 humanoid robot manufacturers worldwide – more than half of them in China – indicating the investments being made in this sector. The IFR expects the global demand for robots to continue to grow and predicts that the number of new installations will rise by 9% to 655,000 in 2026, and reach 806,000 by 2029. It seems unlikely that the UK will contribute much to those figures. Tony Sacks, Editor n COMMENT Opt ed co m close timize your torqu ooling machine ass r e moto s e m b ly w i th o ur G W EA W Water pip ASY INS solution. leakage-free Guaranteed GHTNESS e ce. WATER TI rfa leakage free pes Plug-and-Play inter N STALLATIO emoves the need T R MACHINE COS on controlle and hig ers cated to moti is 100% dedi dmotor. ETEL for special casting aroun gh-end motion system products Our w ology. o direct drive techn provides a portfolio to meet yo ide range of linear and torque m ur needs. motors, position and ETEL Torque Motors ar HEIDENHA buted in the UK by re distri b T: 01444 2477 • AIN GB Limited sales@heidenhain.co.uk • 711 www.etel.ch
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