Global investment bank Morgan Stanley recently projected that China's Humanoid Robot shipments this year will reach 50,000 units. That is nearly double the outlook issued at the start of the year.
In Korea's robotics industry, there is also an outlook that if China's Humanoid Robots are deployed on a large scale at industrial sites and their performance further improves, demand among domestic corporations to introduce Chinese-made Humanoid Robots could increase. Domestic Humanoid Robot shipments are only in the hundreds.
According to the robotics industry on the 30th, Morgan Stanley recently raised its forecast for this year's shipments of Chinese-made humanoids from 28,000 units presented at the start of the year to 50,000. It reflected plans by several corporations, including Chinese EV maker Xpeng, to begin mass production by the end of the year.
Morgan Stanley also raised its 2030 forecast for China's annual humanoid shipments from 262,000 units to 446,000. It projected the market size will grow from $2 billion this year to $15 billion (about 23 trillion won) in 2030.
Behind the rapid growth of China's Humanoid Robot industry is policy support from the Chinese government. In March, the National People's Congress of China approved the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030), which includes fostering 10 strategic industries such as Humanoid Robots.
The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said, "As academia, industry, government, and the capital market work together, the momentum for the development of the humanoid industry is growing rapidly," and added, "During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, we will focus on establishing mass-production systems and defining commercial models, and the market size is expected to grow to 86.1 billion yuan (about 19 trillion won) by 2030."
As China moves in earnest to commercialize Humanoid Robots, the government is pushing to expand their deployment at industrial sites. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced plans to complete humanoid demonstrations at key industrial sites by the end of this year and build a foundation to distribute 10,000 units.
In practice, Chinese corporations are accelerating mass production of humanoids. Unitree, which is seeking a listing on the Chinese stock market, set this year's shipment target at up to 20,000 units. That is nearly four times last year's shipments (5,500 units). Ubtech signed an agreement with German software corporation Siemens in March and said it will produce 10,000 industrial humanoids this year.
More foreign corporations are introducing Chinese Humanoid Robots. Japan Airlines (JAL) announced in April that it would conduct a ground operations demonstration at Tokyo's Haneda Airport using Unitree robots. French aircraft maker Airbus purchased Ubtech's industrial Humanoid Robot Walker S2 for use in aerospace manufacturing.
Last year, domestic Humanoid Robot shipments were known to be fewer than 200 units. According to data from market research firm Omdia, global Humanoid Robot shipments last year were about 13,000 units. Of that, Korean-made robots accounted for about 1%.
An official at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources' Artificial Intelligence Machinery and Robotics Division said, "There are no official statistics on domestic Humanoid Robot production or shipments," and noted, "Based on market research firm tallies, we estimate domestic shipments at around 150 to 200 units."
Among domestic experts, there are voices that Chinese-made Humanoid Robots could penetrate Korea's industrial sites more quickly. Kim Ik-jae, head of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics Institute at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), said, "If Chinese robots equipped with advanced robot foundation models are deployed to domestic industrial sites and their usability is proven to autonomously work in factories, not only Korea's humanoid research but also the industrial sector will be greatly affected," and added, "Humanoids have not yet reached a commercialization level, but if low-priced, strong Chinese models dominate the Korean market, it could become difficult for Korean corporations to compete."