Sales increased by 30 percent to about 150,000 units

Citation

(2012), "Sales increased by 30 percent to about 150,000 units", Industrial Robot, Vol. 39 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2012.04939eaa.002

Sales increased by 30 percent to about 150,000 units

Article Type: New products From: Industrial Robot: An International Journal, Volume 39, Issue 5

“The success of the global robotics industry continued in 2011,” said Dr Shinsuke Sakakibara, IFR President, on Thursday in Frankfurt. “Investments in robot automation again surged in all regions!”

Based on the results of the IFR Quarterly Statistics the IFR estimates that in 2011, sales of industrial robots will reach the new peak level of about 150,000 units. This would be an increase of about 30 percent compared to 2010. Already in 2010, sales greatly recovered from the dramatic downturn in 2009. In 2010, particularly, the automotive industry was the main driver of the strong growth. But for 2011, robot suppliers reported a considerable increase of demand also from the general industry, i.e. all other industries without automotive.

Dr Sakakibara commented: “Thanks to the demand of emerging countries including China, the sales of factory automation apparatus are increasing. However, the growth of sales of machine tools seems to be slowing down under the influence of Europe’s currency crisis and/or a Chinese tight-money policy. But, this does not apply to robots.”

The use of robots guarantees dramatic improvements in quality

The IFR Vice President, Arturo Baroncelli, COMAU, Italy, added: “We were sure about a good year in 2011 but the results have been far better than the expectations. In a still unclear worldwide economic scenario one thing is certain: the use of robots always guarantees fast return of investments and dramatic improvements in terms of quality. And this is true both in car and general industry, both in emerging countries and nations having a long industrial tradition.”