Southern China’s Guangdong Province produced 165,700 industrial robots last year, up 2.21% year on year and ranking No. 1 in the nation for three years in a row, Guangdong authorities said on July 28.
Guangdong, which manufactures a third of the country’s industrial robots, generated 61.64 billion yuan (US$8.6 billion) in revenue from the smart robot business last year, an increase of 15.45% over a year earlier, according to Department of Industry and Information Technology of Guangdong.
During the same period, the province’s entire robotic industry contributed an added value of 11.14 billion yuan, 12.1% higher than in 2021.
As a manufacturing hub, Guangdong is leading China’s drive to evolve into a robotic powerhouse. It is home to a number of well-known robot companies from home and abroad, including Kuka, Han’s Robot (大族机器人), Kawasaki and Minotech (明珞装备).
It has also incubated a handful of emerging local players, such as Jaten (嘉腾), Lxdrobot (利迅达) and Highdream (海川智能).
Guangdong’s endeavor to build robots dates back to the 1990s. After 30 years of development, it has established industrial clusters around major cities like Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Foshan and Zhuhai.
Guangdong-based robotic firms have not just grown in numbers but also in strengths, as they have begun to step out of single applications into multiple use cases.
A series of policies have spurred the development of the robotic sector in Guangdong.
In 2020, a key official document indicates that by 2025, smart robot businesses will report a combined 80 billion yuan in revenue, of which a fourth will come from service robots.
UAVs or remote operated vehicles (ROVs) are forecast to add 50 billion yuan.
The document didn’t say where the remainder will come from, though.
Meanwhile, industrial robot production is expected to exceed 100,000 units per year, it said.
