Universal Robots picks China for 1st overseas production facility

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The UR20 cobot with its increased payload at the 2024 China International Industry Fair. | Credit: Universal Robots

Universal Robots A/S is looking to significantly expand its presence in China, the world’s largest market for industrial robots. The world’s leading developer of collaborative robot arms is opening a production facility there and introducing two robots that will be available exclusively to the Chinese market.

To meet increasing Chinese demand, Universal Robots (UR) has established manufacturing capabilities in Nantong, China. The company will produce two new cobots for that market: the UR7e and UR12e. Details on the robots are scarce at the moment, and they aren’t listed on UR’s website.

UR told The Robot Report that the UR7e has a 7.5 kg (16.5 lb.) payload and a reach of 850 mm (33.4 in.), while the UR12e has a 12.5kg (27.5 lb.) payload and a 1,300 mm (51.1 in.) reach.

UR said the specification of these models has been “specifically chosen to meet the needs of China’s automotive, electronic, and metal & machinery industries alongside others.”

This is the first overseas production facility for UR. Its other cobots, including the latest generation that includes the UR20 and UR30, will continue to be manufactured in Odense, Denmark, where UR has been headquartered since its founding in 2005. UR said it has sold more than 90,000 cobots to date.

“UR products are known worldwide for their quality and design – an outcome of Denmark’s exceptional culture of innovation and engineering excellence,” said Kim Povlsen, president of Universal Robots. “As our company grows, it is becoming important to extend our production base. Our company is on a bold mission: Automation for anyone, anywhere. Creating a production base in China will take us a step closer to reaching part of the global market for whom our existing technology is currently out of reach.”

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Universal Robots recognizes market opportunity

UR wrote about the importance of China in October 2023. It said “Chinese production is very much on track to being automized like in no other country on earth.”

China’s large manufacturing industry and future labor shortage are two key reasons for why its been the world’s largest robotics market for more than a decade. According to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), China is by far the largest robotics market.

The IFR said the 276,288 industrial robots installed in China in 2023 represent 51% of all global robotics installations. In the long term, the IFR said there is still a lot of growth potential in Chinese manufacturing, with the potential for 5% to 10% average annual growth until 2027.

For comparison’s sake, the IFR said Japan remained the second-largest global market for industrial robots in 2023. Robot installations reached 46,106 units in 2023 in Japan, down 9% from the year before. Robot installations in the U.S. were down 5% in 2023 at 37,587, according to the IFR.

China’s robot density climbs

The IFR also tracks robot density, a figure that indicates the number of operational industrial robots per 10,000 employees in a country or region. The IFR said robot density a key indicator of how automated a country’s manufacturing sector is.

China was third overall in robot density in 2023, with 470 robots per 10,000 employees. It trailed only the Republic of Korea and Singapore, which had robot densities of 1,012 and 770, respectively.

China took third place in 2023, surpassing Germany and Japan for the first time. It has been heavily investing in automation technology in recent years. This investment seems to have paid off, the IFR noted, as the People’s Republic of China reached a high robot density of 470 robots per 10,000 employees, compared with 402 units in 2022.

UR certainly has some competition among domestic cobot manufacturers in China. The list of Chinese cobot makers includes AUBO Robotics, Dobot, Elephant Robotics, Jaka Robots, Siasun, and more.

Universal Robots generated $304 million in revenue in 2023, which was down 7% year-over-year from the record $326 million generated in 2022. UR is owned by Teradyne, a leading developer of automated testing equipment.

Teradyne has previously said its market penetration for collaborative robots, including autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), is under 5%, leaving Teradyne with a lot of room for long-term growth. Teradyne also owns Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR), a leading provider of AMRs.

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