India´s Robot Sales Surged by 30%

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Sales of industrial robots in India reached the new record of 3,412 new units installed in 2017. That is an increase of 30% compared to the previous year (2016: 2,627 units). Between 2012 and 2017 India saw a compound annual sales growth rate (CAGR) of 18%. These are initial findings of the World Robotics Report 2018, published by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR).

Broken down by industry, India´s automotive sector is the main customer with a share of 62% of the total supply 2017. Sales rose by 27% compared to the previous year.

India´s Automotive Industry Announces Expansion

“The automotive industry will remain the main driver of the increasing robot installations in India,” says Junji Tsuda, President of the International Federation of Robotics. “Numerous new projects are announced by the international and domestic car manufacturers aiming to expand production capacities. Moreover, OEMs increasingly require local supply of automotive parts.”

General Industry is Catching Up 

A clear sign that the general industry is catching up with the automotive sector can be seen by the sales numbers of industrial robots in i.e. the rubber and plastics industry, the metal industry and the electrical and electronics industry, which increased by 46% in 2017.

“The general industry will further invest in production capacities and modernization to serve this growing consumer market,” says IFR President Junji Tsuda. “Therefore, an accelerated and strong robot sales growth is expected between 2018 and 2021.”

India's Robot Success Story Started in 2009—Robot Density Still Low

India is one of the strongest growing economies among the Asian emerging markets. Since 2009, the number of robot installations has been growing rapidly. In 2017, India ranked No. 14 regarding the global annual supply, following Thailand and Spain. Regarding the operational stock, India ranked thirteenth following Canada, Spain and Singapore.

India´s automation potential is illustrated by a rather low robot density figure: 85 industrial robots per 10,000 employees in the automotive industry is less than a fourth of Indonesia´s density (378 units) and far away from China´s (505 units).

About IFR

The IFR Statistical Department publishes two robotics studies each year:

World Robotics—Industrial Robots: This unique report provides global statistics on industrial robots in standardised tables and enables national comparisons to be made. It contains statistical data from around 40 countries broken down into areas of application, industrial sectors, types of robots and other technical and economic aspects. Production, export and import data is listed for selected countries. It also describes the trends in relation to robotic density, e.g. the number of robots per 10,000 employees in relevant sectors.

World Robotics—Service Robots: This unique report provides global statistics on service robots, market analyses, case studies and international research strategies on service robots. The study is jointly prepared with our partner Fraunhofer IPA, Stuttgart.