China's robot sector witnesses increasing demand

BEIJING -- The robot market in China is showing promising signs as workers get replaced due to soaring labor costs, according to Thursday's China Securities Journal.

The country's industrial robot sector has climbed about 30 percent in the past five years. However, the number of industrial robots is about 10 percent of that in Japan and about 25 percent of Germany, indicating huge market space, according to Ping An Securities market analysis.

The situation is reminiscent of Japan in the 1980s, when its robot sector climbed nearly 50 percent in ten years due to hiking labor costs, Ping An said, forecasting the Chinese robot sector to gain 30 percent in the next three years.

A total of 22,577 robots were sold in China in 2011, up 50.7 percent from 2010, and the country is now the market with the quickest growth of robots, according to Sinolink Securities.

The domestic robot market is dominated by producers from Japan, Europe and the United States, while Chinese companies only take less than 10 percent of the total, according to Dongxing Securities.

The country's robot producers may gradually win about 30 percent of domestic market, according to China Galaxy Securities.