Industrial robots - worldwide installations

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Worldwide industrial robot shipments amounted to some 384,000 in 2020, just a slight increase compared to 2019. It is projected that industrial robot shipments will increase significantly in the coming years, even surpassing the peak in 2018 when around 422,000 industrial robots were shipped worldwide. It is expected that in 2024, global industrial robot shipments will amount to about 518,000.

Leading industrial robot markets

Japan, China, the United States, South Korea, and Germany are counted among the five leading industrial robot markets worldwide. In emerging manufacturing markets, the growth trend is largely driven by rising wages that make the use of machines appear a viable alternative to human labor.

Leading applications for industrial robots

Industrial robots can be deployed for a wide range of tasks in a growing number of industries. Although the highly automated car manufacturing sector remains one the largest areas of application for electro-mechanical machines, it was the electrical/electronics industry that installed the most industrial robots in 2020.
It has to be noted that the field of robotics is a part of another industry: the automation market. This industry is comprised of a variety of products and services, including relays, switches, sensors and drives, machine vision and control systems, as well as industry software development and services. Conglomerates like Siemens, Mitsubishi Electric or General Electric are the major vendors of industrial automation and industry software. The key players in the industrial robot market include ABB, KUKA, Fanuc, Kawasaki, and Yaskawa.