Industrial robot market worth over dollar11.8bn in 2021

Published on : 04 July 2022

Market to grow to dollar 20bn by 2026 shipment growth rates saw YoY increase of over 30 percent in 2021.
 

London, July 2022 – After a 2-year period of contraction, industrial robot shipments saw a YoY (year-on-year) increase of over 30% in 2021, according to new research published by Interact Analysis. Pre-pandemic, the industrial robot sector was considered relatively mature, enjoying moderate, stable growth, but Covid and the extended labour shortages that followed have caused an increased enthusiasm for manufacturing automation which has turbo-charged the robot industry. Additionally, many manufacturing companies are investing in automation as a form of ‘future-proofing’ to prepare them for future emergencies.

The industrial robot market was worth over $11.8 billion in 2021 with over three quarters of this value represented by articulated robots. By 2026, the market will be worth almost $20 billion, with articulated robots' ratio slightly decreased but still accounting for over 70% of this. However, it will be collaborative robots (cobots) that will see the most success in new markets and applications.

However, short-term worries remain. These worries include new waves of Covid causing lockdowns in China, inflation, and impending recession. And the most important, worsening supply chain issues have kept production and demand growth out of sync.

Interact Analysis previously forecasted a steady decline in the average selling price of industrial robots. But, as a result of global supply chain issues, there were dramatic pricing increases in the industrial robot market in 2021. It is likely that price increases will continue through 2022 due to ongoing economic uncertainty.

Maya Xiao, Senior Analyst at Interact Analysis, says, “This new piece of industrial robot research has been the largest revision to our forecasts that we’ve had to undertake since we started to track the robotics industry in 2018. The long-term outlook for industrial robots is bright – significantly brighter than it was pre-pandemic. I think it’s fair to say that Covid has caused the most conservative of factory managers to consider the benefits of advanced industrial automation. However, the short-term issues are grave. In particular, there are problems in Europe where the Ukraine conflict is a real threat to the industrial automation sector because the reduction in business confidence is delaying the sorts of large investment decisions that are needed to implement automation projects.”

Source - Industrial Automation Magazine