Estun (埃斯顿, 002747.SZ), the largest Chinese industrial robot supplier by production and sales, has been at the forefront of Nanjing’s drive to evolve into a robot hub in eastern China.
Nanjing, capital city of Jiangsu Province, is home to a number of leading Chinese robotic companies, including Estun, Yijiahe (亿嘉和) and Panda Electronics (熊猫电子).
Estun recorded revenue of 2.24 billion yuan (US$307 million) in the first half of this year, up 35.38% year on year, with 97.4 million yuan in net profit attributable to shareholders, an increase of 27.66% over the previous year.
Estun ascribed the spike in its performance to surging demand from downstream clients in manufacturing sectors such as 3C, auto parts, PV and lithium battery.
The company’s industrial robots consist of 64 models with payloads from 3 to 700 kg, meant for a wealth of use cases.
Continuous focus on R&D
“Our company has been investing more than 10% of our revenue into R&D,” said Zhou Ailin, executive president Zhou Ailin was quoted as saying in local media. “Right now we have achieved full self-reliance in the production of industrial robots.”
The firm spent 203.27 million yuan on R&D activities during the reporting period, which are 29.36% higher than in the same period last year.
Year to date, Estun has largely sustained its growth momentum that began last year.
It reported a net profit of 166 million yuan, up 36.28%, on revenue of 3.88 billion yuan, a leap of 28.48%, last year.
Shipments of its industrial robots totaled 18,000 units during the same period.
Estun has joined a number of domestic industrial robot developers in pushing for higher levels of homegrown innovation throughout its manufacturing and sourcing of core components.
Currently, self-developed parts basically meet its requirements for robot production, and the firm has forged an industrial ecosystem ranging from key parts to robotic bodies and to system integration, it claims.
Estun’s robust performance is a microcosm of the overall uptick of its home city’s industrial robot domain.
In the first seven months of this year, Nanjing’s industrial robot production jumped 28.1% year on year, generating an increase of 3.4% in revenue.
This outpaces the average growth of Nanjing-based industrial firms with annual revenue of 20 million yuan and more by 2.9 percentage points.
Nanjing issued a guideline last year on the smart overhaul and digital transformation of the city’s manufacturing segment between 2022 and 2024.
The document stipulates that the city will take measures to accelerate the innovation and development of indigenous industrial robots, as well as support leading companies like Estun to promote their products and services.
