According to the World Robotics 2021 Industrial Robots report published by the International Federation of Robotics, a record 3 million industrial robots are presently operating in factories around the world. In 2020, despite the global pandemic, robot sales grew slightly at 0.5% with 384,000 units shipped worldwide, thanks mainly to market developments in China. Asia, in fact, remains the world’s largest market with 71% of all newly deployed robots in 2020 installed there.
In Europe, industrial robot installations were down by 8% to 67,700 units in 2020, marking the second year of decline, after a peak of 75,560 units in 2018. Germany, one of the five major robot markets in the world (China, Japan, USA, Korea, Germany) had a share of 33% of the total installations in Europe, followed by Italy with 13% and France with 8%.
In the UK, industrial robot installations were up by 8% to 2,205 units with the food and beverage industry almost doubling their installations. In North America, the USA noted an 8% slowdown in new installations; however, thanks to a strong recovery, the return to pre-crisis levels of industrial robot installations can be expected for 2021.
The outlook for 2021 envisions a strong rebound in global robot installations with double digit growth that will exceed the level achieved in 2018.
