Why are industrial robots “ice and fire” double sky?
In the past decade, with the widespread application of robots in the manufacturing industry, the scale of China's industrial robot industry has grown rapidly. According to relevant data, the shipment volume of China's industrial robots will reach 256,300 units in 2021, with a year-on-year growth of 49.5%. At the same time, the market size of China's industrial robots will reach 44.57 billion yuan in 2021, ranking first in the world, and it is expected to exceed 50 billion yuan in 2022.
From the perspective of competition pattern, the epidemic situation has significantly accelerated domestic substitution. In 2021, the domestic industrial robot brand will account for 32.8% of the domestic market, with a year-on-year growth of 4.2%.
In the past decade, China's high-end equipment manufacturing industry has also made rapid progress. In the past ten years, the added value of China's manufacturing industry increased from 16.98 trillion yuan to 31.4 trillion yuan, accounting for nearly 30% of the world's total, ranking first in the world. Among the 500 major industrial products, China's output of more than 40% products ranks first in the world, and the comprehensive strength of the manufacturing industry has been greatly improved.
In recent years, the investment and financing of the domestic robot industry has continued to be active, and a pattern of joint development of industry and capital has been preliminarily formed. According to statistics, in the first half of 2022, China's robot industry has disclosed financing amount of more than 5 billion yuan.
Robots and automation have become an indispensable part of modern manufacturing. Manufacturers integrate robot systems in production facilities to improve productivity, improve profit margins and reduce operating costs. The automobile industry is the key field of industrial robot application. At present, the sales growth of new energy vehicles is faster than expected, and the robot market demand will continue to maintain a good trend.
Listed companies have lost money in succession, and domestic companies have replaced hidden weaknesses
Not only the third quarter report, but also in the performance report released in the first half of this year, it can be found that industrial robot enterprises generally suffered losses.
Some companies pointed out in the announcement that poor performance was mainly affected by the epidemic, which led to tight supply chain, difficult to ensure delivery, and affected signing and production. At the same time, the continuous rise in raw material prices also reduced the gross profit margin and profits.
In the medium and long term, the market share that can be improved by domestic industrial robots is still large, with obvious advantages in some segments of the track. The main advantages of domestic brands include:
Localization: domestic industrial robot suppliers have perfect marketing networks and after-sales service systems in China, and customers enjoy more efficient and convenient services;
Cost: The cost of overseas suppliers in terms of import tariff and dealer layout is still high; In addition, after domestic brands have gradually formed scale effect, their bargaining power on the upstream has been enhanced, and their cost control ability is expected to be further improved;
The whole industrial chain: domestic industrial robot suppliers constantly improve the technical system through "independent research and development+extension mergers and acquisitions", improve the self production rate of core parts, and gradually form the advantages of the whole industrial chain.
In addition, China's industrial robots also face the following problems:
First, the core technology is hollow. Technical barriers are one of the main reasons that limit the development of industrial robots in China. The core parts account for 70% of the production cost of the industrial robot body, which is the main value highland of the industrial chain. In fact, the reason why Fanuc, ABB, Yaskawa and Kuka have been able to hold the industrial robot market all the time is that they have mastered the key profit points of core parts, so they have strong profitability.
With the improvement of domestic technology, some domestic brands can produce parts on a large scale, but only to meet the needs of middle and low end.
Compared with the world's advanced level, China's robot industry still has a certain gap. China's robot industry lacks technology accumulation, original research, theoretical research, and positive design capabilities; The industrial foundation is weak, and the quality stability and reliability of key components cannot meet the requirements of high-performance complete machines.
Secondly, high-end products are low-end. The so-called low-end phenomenon of industrial robots mainly refers to a part of robot body manufacturing enterprises, which mainly focus on assembly and processing, and the core components need to be imported, which mainly refers to machinery and control parts. Although this kind of low level assembly industrial robot can meet certain localization needs, the market competitiveness of the products is limited.
More than 80% of enterprises only use industrial robots as low-end mechanical equipment. In order to meet the requirements of customers, robot companies have also habitually entered the "low level competition", gradually giving up the power to develop sophisticated products.
Even many domestic industrial robot manufacturing enterprises mainly focus on assembly and processing, and the phenomenon of low industrial concentration and small and scattered market is not optimistic.
In addition, there is overcapacity at the low-end of the industry, and some enterprises blindly expand their production capacity. The robot products produced can only be gathered in the low-end areas for price competition.
Finally, the dominant market is marginalized. In the leading markets such as automobile manufacturing and electronics, industrial robots are almost all foreign products, and high-performance products account for almost 80%.
According to the White Paper on the Development of China's Industrial Robot Industry 2020, industrial robots used in the power electronics and automotive industries account for more than 50% of the market share. However, the robot market in the automobile industry is occupied by foreign brands, and the existing competition pattern is hard to shake.
Summary:
On the whole, the technology and market concentration of domestic robot enterprises are low, and their ability to control the industrial chain is relatively weak. Upstream parts and components are always imported, so they have no bargaining advantage for upstream parts and components manufacturers. The ontology and integration enterprises mainly focus on assembly and processing, which are at the low end of the industrial chain, with low industrial concentration and small overall scale.
For robot enterprises with certain capital, market and technical strength, building an industrial chain has become an important way for enterprises to expand their market and influence. At present, domestic leading robot enterprises have also stepped up to expand their own industrial territory through cooperation or mergers and acquisitions. Combined with the service advantages of local system integration, they already have certain competitiveness, and are expected to truly import foreign brands in the future.