China succeeded in installing 295,000 robots during the past year 2024, representing more than half of the total new global installations, as part of the general increase in the number of industrial robots globally, as new installations reached 542,000 units globally, an increase of 9% compared to 2023.
With 2.03 million robots in industrial operations, China has the largest fleet of industrial robots in the world, significantly outperforming Japan, which has about 450,000 robots, the United States with 400,000 robots, and South Korea with 392,000 robots.
Relying on robots to enhance productivity
The widespread use of robots in China helps maintain high production efficiency in key industries such as automobile manufacturing, electronics assembly, and logistics. These robots handle tasks such as welding, transporting heavy materials, and precision assembly, reducing reliance on human labor for repetitive jobs.
Automation to combat population decline
The increase in the use of robots comes at a time when China is facing demographic challenges, as the country’s population decreased in 2024 by 1.39 million people, which contributed to the shrinkage of the workforce, and experts believe that reliance on automation has become necessary to maintain industrial production levels despite the decline in the number of workers.
Professor Gao The workforce is vital to support the next phase of smart manufacturing.
Global leadership in production and innovation
China is no longer just a major consumer of robots, it has also become the world’s largest producer of industrial robots, surpassing Japan in 2024, and its share of global production has risen from 25% in 2023 to about a third of production in 2024.
Local manufacturing of key components such as motors, sensors, gears, and controllers allows Chinese companies to expand the use of robots at low costs, with companies like Xiaomi and BYD operating in fully automated factories known as “dark factories,” reflecting China’s growing expertise in smart manufacturing.
The rise of humanoid robots
China is also moving towards human-like robots. In 2024, Tiantai Robot Company in Guangdong Province received an order for 10,000 humanoid robots, most of them intended for elderly care. This reflects the shift from research and development to commercial use of human-like robots, representing a new stage in the world of automation.
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