China remains world's largest industrial robot market

A humanoid robot is pictured during the World Robot Conference 2024 in Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 21, 2024. The World Robot Conference 2024 opened here on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Ren Chao)

BEIJING, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- China has remained the world's largest market for industrial robots for an 11th consecutive year, an official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said Thursday at the ongoing 2024 World Robot Conference in Beijing.

Data shows that in 2023, China's industrial robot production had reached 430,000 sets, while the country's newly added robot installations accounted for more than half of the global market over the past three years, said Xin Guobin, vice minister of the MIIT.

After a decade of rapid development, China has become a strong promoter of the growth of the global robot industry, Xin added.

Xin said that over the years, China's robot industry has made great progress in innovation and development, and new breakthroughs have been achieved in the research and development of bionic perception, cognition, planning and control technologies.

As of July 2024, China boasted more than 190,000 effective robot-related patents, accounting for about two-thirds of the global total.

According to Xin, China is deepening implementation of the "Robot plus Application" initiative, promoting the integration of robots across various industries. During the past 10 years, the number of robots per 10,000 workers in China's manufacturing sector has surged from 49 to 470.

The five-day conference in Beijing began on Wednesday, with 169 enterprises from around the world participating, including major global players like Tesla and Siasun. Participating companies are showcasing more than 600 units of robots, with over 60 of them making their world debuts at this conference.