The sales of China’s arc welding robots slid 5.84% year on year in the first half of this year to 14,500 units, signaling the slow recovery of demand from a sluggish industrial sector, data from GGII, an automation- and robot-focused market intelligence provider, shows.
Arc welding robots are widely adopted in auto parts, 3C electronics, shipbuilding, rail transport, engineering machinery, petroleum chemistry, among other industries.
Nonetheless, as economic activities steadily bounce back in the second half of this year, growing demand is expected to push higher the output and sales of welding robots.
GGII predicted the segment, a niche but fast-growing category of industrial robots, to reap a sales of 31,500 units by the end of 2023, an increase of 2.27% over the previous year.
Data gathered by GGII suggests that arc welding robots experienced the highest rates of growth in 2020 and 2021, surging 31.02% and 29.60%, respectively. Sales peaked in 2021 at 41,600 units all year round.
It came tumbling 25.96% the following year to 30,800 units, due in large part to coronavirus-induced lockdowns and other containment measures, which brought economic activities to a standstill and disrupted supply chains.
