China’s Tops World Record of 2 Million Factory Robots
FRANKFURT
FRANKFURT, September 26th, 2025/news aktuell/ —
China recorded a world record of 2,027,000 industrial robots working in factories. Annual installations hit 295,000 units in 2024. This was up 7% and the highest level ever recorded – representing 54% of global demand. This is according to the World Robotics 2025 report, presented by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR)
“China’s strategy to modernize its manufacturing base has reached a new milestone in the country’s automation push,” says Takayuki Ito, President of the International Federation of Robotics. “The robot stock doubled within three years, surpassing 1 million units in 2021 and now counting 2 million units in 2024.”
Domestic manufacturers further increase market share
For the first time, Chinese manufacturers sold more than foreign manufacturers at home: The share climbed to 57% across industries in 2024, up from 47% in 2023. Local Chinese robot suppliers also managed to open up new markets for the use of robots with sharp growth in fields such as food processing, textiles, and wood manufacturing. Robot installations in the food and beverage sector for example surged 86% year-on-year to 8,900 units in 2024, with domestic suppliers accounting for 80% of the total. The textiles, leather and apparel sector saw installations rise to 5,700 units in 2024, up 29% from the previous year. All units were supplied by Chinese manufacturers. On a global scale China accounted for 95% of installations in this category. In the wood and wood products industry, installations reached a record 4,300 units in 2024. China represented 91% of global installations in the sector.
Top 3 customer industries
The electrical/electronics industry remains the main customer of industrial robots in China: Total installations hit 83,000 units in 2024. This was up 7% year-on-year. The average annual growth rate from 2019 to 2024 was 16%. The Chinese electronics industry installed 64% of the global installations in this industry in 2024. Chinese producers supplied 59% of these robots.
The automotive industry has been the second largest customer industry since 2016. The number of installations reached 57,200 units – a decrease of 12%. The CAGR from 2019 to 2024 is +13%. The share of the Chinese robot suppliers grew by 9 percentage points to 31% in 2024. A total of 45% of the global installations in the automotive industry took place in China.
Robot installations in the metal and machinery industry increased significantly by 31% to 54,600 units in 2024 – the highest level ever recorded. Chinese robot suppliers had a market share of 90%.
Outlook
According to the IFR’s Quarterly Survey Q1-2025, order intake in Asia grew strongly by double-digit rates, which is largely determined by the Chinese market. The trend toward an increasing share of domestic robots will likely prevail, as robot production in China has been accelerating rapidly in 2024. Robotics offers potential for around 10% growth on average each year until 2028. But even beyond this period, China will remain the major market for robotics.
Press release in English and German language and picture can be downloaded at: https://ifr.org/ifr-press-releases/
About IFR
The International Federation of Robotics is the voice of the global robotics industry. IFR represents national robot associations, academia, and manufacturers of industrial and service robots from over twenty countries: www.ifr.org
The IFR Statistical Department provides data for two annual robotics studies:
World Robotics – Industrial Robots: This unique report provides global statistics on industrial robots in standardized tables and enables national comparisons to be made. It presents statistical data for around 40 countries broken down into areas of application, customer industries, types of robots and other technical and economic aspects. Production, export and import data is listed for selected countries. It also offers robot density, i.e. the number of robots per 10,000 employees, as a measure for the degree of automation.
World Robotics – Service Robots: This unique report describes marketable products, tasks, challenges and new developments by service robots application. The report includes the results of the annual IFR service robot survey on global sales of professional and consumer service robots and an industry structure analysis including a full list of all service robot producers known to the IFR. The study is jointly prepared with the robotics experts of Fraunhofer IPA, Stuttgart.
– Picture is available at AP –
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E-Mail: press@ifr.org