It is reported that since the beginning of the fourth quarter, the output and orders of industrial robots have rebounded significantly, and the growth of downstream demand has led to the full capacity of some enterprises. The orders in hand have been placed until the beginning of next year, and the daily average shipment volume is nearly 100 units, an increase of more than 2 times over the first half of the year.
Both production and sales of industrial robots increased
Recently, as the impact of the epidemic has weakened, China's industrial robot industry has gradually recovered, and the output has returned to positive growth in September. The data shows that China's industrial robot output reached 43000 units in September, with a year-on-year increase of 15.1%, and a month-on-month growth rate of 4.2%, showing obvious signs of improvement.
This recovery continued to the fourth quarter. In October, the output of domestic industrial robots reached 39000, up 14.4% year on year; From January to October, the output of domestic industrial robots was 362568 sets, and the year-on-year growth rate of cumulative output increased from - 10.5% in August to - 3.2%.
In terms of sales volume, in the third quarter of 2022, China's industrial robot market shipped more than 70000 sets, up more than 20% year on year; The shipment volume of industrial robots in the first three quarters was about 202000 units, which was increasing in general.
In the fourth quarter, the industrial robot market will continue to improve. According to the latest statistics released by the Bureau of Statistics, in October, the added value of industries above designated size increased by 5.0% year-on-year in real terms and 0.33% month-on-month. From January to October, the added value of industries above designated size increased by 4.0% year-on-year.
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 industry 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. The output of China's new energy vehicles in the first three quarters increased by 120% year-on-year. As the largest market for industrial robot applications, it undoubtedly drives the growth of the entire industrial robot market.
Benefiting from the driving role of new energy vehicles, the growth rate of fixed investment in the automobile manufacturing industry in the first three quarters reached 19.2%, nearly twice the growth rate of investment in the national manufacturing industry.
In October, the production and sales of new energy vehicles continued to maintain rapid growth. In October, the production and sales of new energy vehicles were 762000 and 714000 respectively, up 87.6% and 81.7% year on year, and the market share reached 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 increase 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 the upstream investment intensity also declined. The growth rate of investment in the first three quarters decreased by 4.5% year-on-year, which also led to the growth of industrial robot application in the industry from positive to negative.
However, in the fourth quarter, the consumer electronics industry seems to have warmed up. For example, the year-on-year growth of smartphone production in October turned from negative to positive. In October, China's smartphone production reached 114 million units, a year-on-year increase of 4.30%, compared with the previous value of - 2.20%, a direct increase of 6.5 percentage points.
Semiconductor, photovoltaic, medical and other emerging industries are another major driving force for the growth of demand for industrial robots. In the first half of this year, 30.88GW of photovoltaic installed capacity was added in China, up 137% year on year, and the demand for industrial robots increased sharply; 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 continue to grow under the continuous high momentum of the industry.
In general, the industrial robot market in the first three quarters was mainly driven by the demand for new energy vehicles and emerging industries, and 3C Electronics appeared 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.