Asia Races Ahead in Industrial Robot Installations

Asia is the world’s largest market for industrial robotics, with nearly three quarters of all newly deployed robots installed there in 2022, according to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR).

More than 400,000 units were installed in Asia that year, up 5 percent from the year before. China is driving the vast majority of the region’s market, with over 290,000 units installed in the country in 2022. With over 550,000 robots installed worldwide in 2022 - the highest number on record (+5 percent from 2021) - every other robot installed globally was in China that year. The next largest national market in Asia in 2022 was Japan with more than 50,000 newly installed units (+9 percent). Japan showed continued recovery from the 2020 pandemic dip, with installations returning to 2019 levels. In third position came the Korean market with nearly 32,000 units (+1 percent).

In Europe, the second largest regional market, around 84,000 new robot units were installed in 2022 (+3 percent). Germany was the largest European market with over 25,000 robots installed, although this was a one percent downturn from 2021. The next largest markets in the region were Italy with 11,000 units (+8 percent) and France with 7,000 units(+13 percent). Meanwhile, in the Americas, the United States accounted for 71 percent of installations (40,000; +10 percent), followed by Mexico (6,000; +13 percent) and Canada (3,000; -24 percent).

According to the IFR, China, Japan, the U.S., the Republic of Korea and Germany together accounted for 79 percent of global robot installations in 2022 (438,000 units). Worldwide, the major customer industries for robotics were electronics (28 percent of all robots newly installed) automotive (25 percent of new installations), metal and machinery (12 percent), plastic and chemical products (4 percent) and the food and beverage industry (3 percent).