Local robot manufacturing expected to grow in the coming years

Domestic robot manufacturing companies are expected to capture a bigger share of the country's fledging robotics sector in years to come, amid the country's push for a shift from traditional manufacturing into industrial automation, the head of a manufacturing association said on Wednesday.

China's robotics industry has just taken off with many of the core components for building robots such as speed reduction gears heavily reliant on imports, Luo Jun, CEO of the Asian Manufacturing Association (AMA), said in Beijing while announcing that a global robotics event will be held in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province from December 19 to December 22.

Currently, domestic robot manufacturing companies take up less than 30 percent of the country's market for robots, according to Luo, who predicts the figure will rise to over 50 percent in about three to five years.

As an example of the growing importance that the country is attaching to the robotics sector, Su Bo, vice minister of Industry and Information Technology, said on November 3 that his ministry will design a blueprint for the robotics arena as part of the country's 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20).

Other than an optimistic outlook for the robotics sector, industry watchers also place high hopes on growth in the field of 3D printing.

The market for 3D printing is set to grow at a faster pace in China over the upcoming years where a vast manufacturing sector needs to be equipped with the burgeoning technology, Steve Blum, senior vice president of Worldwide Sales and Services at Autodesk Inc, a US-based maker of design software for entertainment, engineering and construction, said on November 6.

Having recently initiated a $100 million fund to bankroll start-ups and designers in the arena of 3D printing, Autodesk, among some of the established firms, is eyeing what would be the future of manufacturing, Blum said at an event in Beijing.

Mirroring growing confidence about the 3D printing space, Hewlett Packard also unveiled its new 3D printing technology on October 29.