Introduction: In terms of sales volume, in the third quarter of 2022, the shipment volume of Chinese industrial robot market exceeded 70,000 units, with a year-on-year growth of more than 20%; In the first three quarters, the shipment volume of industrial robots was about 202,000 units, which was growing continuously on the whole.
It is reported that since the fourth quarter, the output and orders of industrial robots have rebounded significantly. The growth of downstream demand has filled up the capacity of some enterprises. The orders in hand have been placed at the beginning of next year, with the highest daily average shipment of nearly 100 sets, more than twice as much as the first half of the year.
Now the epidemic situation continues, infrastructure investment is gradually saturated, the uncertainty of the export market is increasing, and real estate investment is declining. Increasing investment in the manufacturing industry has become the key to stimulating enterprise confidence and supporting economic development.
Both production and sales of industrial robots have increased
Recently, with the weakening of the impact of the epidemic, Chinese industrial robot industry has gradually recovered, and the output in September has returned to positive growth. The data shows that Chinese industrial robot output reached 43,000 units in September, with a year-on-year growth of 15.1% and a month on month growth of 4.2%, showing obvious signs of improvement.
This recovery trend also continued to the fourth quarter. In October, the domestic production of industrial robots reached 39,000, increase 14.4% year on year; From January to October, the output of domestic industrial robots was 362,568 sets, and the year-on-year growth rate of the cumulative output increased from -10.5% in August to -3.2%.
In terms of sales volume, in the third quarter of 2022, the shipment volume of Chinese industrial robot market exceeded 70,000, with a year-on-year growth of more than 20%; In the first three quarters, the shipment volume of industrial robots was about 202,000 units, which was growing continuously on the whole.
In the fourth quarter, the improvement trend of the industrial robot market will continue to strengthen. The latest statistics released by the Statistics Bureau shows that in October, the added value of industries above designated size actually increased by 5.0% year on year and 0.33% month on month. From January to October, the added value of industries above designated size increased 4.0% year on year.
From the industry perspective, in October, 26 of the 41 major industries maintained year-on-year growth in added value. Among them, the general equipment manufacturing industry grew by 2.0%, the special equipment manufacturing industry grew by 3.0%, the automobile manufacturing industry grew by 18.7%, the electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing industry grew by 16.3%, the computer, communication and other electronic equipment manufacturing industry grew by 9.4%, and the power and heat production and supply industries grew by 4.1%.
Industrial robot application industry
From the perspective of application industry, the sales growth of industrial robots is still driven by the demand of new energy vehicles, lithium batteries, photovoltaic, semiconductor, medical and other emerging industries. 3C electronics and general industries are still at a low point. However, there are some changes in 3C electronics industry recently, which may have an impact on the industrial robot market in the fourth quarter and next year.
Nowadays, new energy vehicles are undoubtedly the growth engine of the automobile industry. In the first three quarters, Chinese new energy vehicle output grew at a year-on-year rate of 120%. As the largest market for the application of industrial robots, it has undoubtedly driven the growth of the entire industrial robot market.
Thanks to the pulling effect of new energy vehicles, the fixed investment growth in the automobile manufacturing industry in the first three quarters reached 19.2%, nearly twice the growth rate of the national manufacturing investment.
In October, the production and sales of new energy vehicles continued to maintain a rapid growth. In October, the production and sales of new energy vehicles were 762,000 and 714,000, up 87.6% and 81.7% year on year, respectively, with a market share of 28.5%. From January to October, the production and sales of new energy vehicles were 5.485 million and 5.28 million respectively, with a year-on-year growth of 1.1 times and a market share of 24%.
In the traditional 3C electronics industry, due to the uncertainty of economic growth, consumption continued to weaken, and upstream investment also declined. The investment growth in the first three quarters fell 4.5% year-on-year, which also led to the application growth of industrial robots in the industry from positive to negative.
However, in the fourth quarter, the consumer electronics industry seems to be picking up. For example, in October, the output of smart phones turned positive from negative to positive on a year-on-year basis. In October, the output of smart phones in China reached 114 million units, a year-on-year increase of 4.30%, while the previous value was -2.20%, a direct increase of 6.5 percentage points.
Semiconductor, photovoltaic, medical and other emerging industries are another driving force for the growth of demand for industrial robots. In the first half of this year, 30.88GW of photovoltaic installed capacity was newly increased in China, with a year-on-year growth of 137%, and the demand for industrial robots increased dramatically; In the semiconductor industry, the growth rate of industrial robots in the first half of the year exceeded 35%, and the demand for industrial robots will also continue to grow under the sustained high landscape of the industry.
Due to the epidemic situation, macroeconomic downturn, commodity price rise, export obstacles and other factors, the downstream market of general industry is still sluggish, and the demand for industrial robots is less than expected.
In general, the industrial robot market in the three quarters was mainly driven by the demand for new energy vehicles and emerging industries. 3C Electronics seems to be warming up in the fourth quarter. Under the combined effect, it is expected that the production and sales of industrial robots in the fourth quarter will be better than expected.