This year's heavyweight benefits? The robot industry welcomes new opportunities!

2022 is a year of rapid growth in China's robotics market, with a market size of 17.4 billion US dollars and an annual growth rate of over 20%. In the post pandemic era of 2023, can robots continue their previous glory and maintain high-speed development?

In 2022, China's manufacturing industry accounted for 27.7%, a year-on-year increase of 3%. Since the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the country has been vigorously promoting the transformation from "Made in China" to "Made in China", and the intelligent upgrading of the manufacturing industry will also bring huge market prospects for robots. At present, the density of robots in China is gradually increasing with the wave of development. In 2021, China surpassed the United States' 274 for the first time with a robot density of 322, and is expected to soon surpass Japan and Germany.

The robot industry is still the "hot spot" in the current market

At present, the overall demand in the manufacturing industry is increasing, but there is a labor shortage in the labor market, which has become a headache for many enterprises. Robots are one of the better solutions to this problem. During the three years of the epidemic, we have already seen the outstanding contribution of robots to industries such as manufacturing and service.

When discussing its views on the robotics industry, CITIC Securities also stated that there is a turning point in the fundamentals this year, and it is expected that the robotics industry will recover from the bottom in 2023. The data turning point will be more obvious after Q2 2023; At the same time, this year, under the background of policy catalysis, building a strong manufacturing country, and reducing the total population, the robot industry will usher in a policy dividend period. In January 2023, 17 departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Implementation Plan for the" Robot+"Application Action", which clarifies the development goals of the robot industry during the "14th Five Year Plan" period; The robot market also has a distinct theme. Under the catalysis of industrial transformation events such as humanoid robots and ChatGPT, the robot industry has become the market focus, and robots are an important carrier of AI technology. Under the interaction of multiple elements, it is believed that the robotics industry will usher in a holistic opportunity.

Creating New Markets and Trends in Parts First

Compared to the development history of smartphones, the robotics industry will have a trend of "component first" in the future, with core components such as servo systems, reducers, and sensors having a relatively high gross profit margin, accounting for over 50% of the total robot machine, and having great potential. According to predictions from relevant institutions, the global service robot market space will reach 155.8 billion yuan in 2026, which is expected to drive the core component market and benefit relevant domestic manufacturers.

Recently, Green Harmonic and Sanhua Intelligent Control issued an announcement, and the two companies signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement. The two sides will establish a joint venture in Sanhua Intelligent Control's Mexico Industrial Park with a registered capital of no less than 10 million US dollars. The joint venture will leverage Green Harmonic's product advantages, as well as Sanhua Intelligent Control's customer and channel advantages, to jointly expand the global market.

Sanhua Intelligent Control is a leading global component manufacturer with over 30 years of history, while Green Harmonic is an enterprise engaged in the research and development, design, and production of precision transmission devices

The demand for industrial robots is expected to continue to grow

With the improvement of efficiency and safety brought by robots replacing manual labor, the demand for robots is expected to continue to grow from downstream applications. Some strategic emerging fields such as photovoltaic, energy storage, hydrogen energy, and the automotive industry, which have a high demand for industrial robots, will continue to increase.

On January 5th, the China Railway Association announced that the sales of new energy vehicles in 2022 reached 6.49 million units, an increase of 96% compared to 3.31 million units in 2021. With the continuous promotion of new energy vehicle policies and subsidies in various regions, it is expected that the demand for new energy vehicles will continue to rise in 2023. It is planned that the market share of new energy vehicles will exceed 50% by 2035. The huge new energy market also benefits industrial robots, with over 25% of industrial robot installations in automotive production.

As a major exporter of industrial robots in the automotive industry, there are also emerging strategic fields such as photovoltaics. In the first half of 2022, the investment in photovoltaic production capacity exceeded 600 billion yuan, and leading enterprises frequently made investment announcements worth tens of billions. Cross border players continue to flock, and production capacity is still accelerating. At present, the production of photovoltaic cells requires 24 hours of uninterrupted operation, with 3 shifts of operators and high labor intensity, resulting in high personnel mobility and a sharp increase in enterprise management costs. The use of industrial robots is urgent. According to statistics, in 2021, the photovoltaic industry's AGV/AMR accounted for 5.2% of the overall market, with a sales volume of approximately 3500 units and a scale of over 600 million yuan. In the photovoltaic industry, where production capacity continues to increase, the demand for robots will be driven again.

The concept of "AI+robots" expands new markets

This year, the biggest topic of discussion in the field of artificial intelligence has been ChatGPT developed by the OpenAI team. Subsequently, global technology companies have joined this AI revolution, and AI models have become a major arms race. Robots are an important carrier of AI, and the development of AI is bound to drive the development of the robotics industry, thus opening up a new market for "AI+robots". At present, the value of the AI big data model industry has exceeded trillion yuan, and robots, as carriers of artificial intelligence, will also open an immeasurable market with this trend.