China's robot production in the first to third quarters surpassed last year's annual record, according to recent tallies. As China steps up support for the robot industry, the rapid localization of core parts has lowered unit prices, which in turn is seen as stimulating demand.
According to the China Machinery Industry Federation and the South China Morning Post (SCMP) on Dec. 4, industrial robot output from January to September 2025 totaled 595,000 units. That was up 29.8% from a year earlier and exceeded the full-year production in 2024.
The China Machinery Industry Federation said the acceleration of artificial intelligence (AI) and industrial integration is advancing industrial equipment, speeding the smartification and automation of manufacturing. In the first to third quarters, the value added of China's smart equipment manufacturing industry rose 12.2% from a year earlier, and output of digital lathes, industrial control systems, three-dimensional (3D) printing equipment, and industrial robots all posted double-digit growth.
Solid overseas demand is also providing support. Customs statistics show that in the first to third quarters this year, China's exports of industrial robots surged 54.9% from a year earlier.
This year's surge in robot production is believed to have been influenced by the Intelligent Manufacturing High-Quality Development Action Plan announced at the end of last year. The plan sets a goal of raising the numerical control (CNC) rate of core processes at large manufacturing corporations to 70% or higher by 2027.
China's robot industry has climbed steeply, with total revenue more than doubling from 106.1 billion yuan (about 21.4343 trillion won) in 2020 to 237.9 billion yuan (about 48 trillion won) in 2024. After the plan was announced, local governments strengthened subsidies and loan support for corporations that purchase domestically made robots, which appears to have spurred robot demand.
The maturation of technology and lower prices also helped. Core components that enable robots to perform precision work—such as harmonic reducers and controllers—used to rely on imports, but the self-sufficiency rate has risen recently. The localization rate of core parts climbed from below 30% in 2020 to over 60% this year. Naturally, as prices fell, the price of finished goods robots dropped about 22% compared with five years ago.
This trend is expected to continue for the next few years. China's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030), released at the end of last month, presented "digital transformation and smartification of manufacturing for industrial upgrading" as a core task. The plan aims to accelerate high-quality production by smartifying manufacturing to build a modernized industrial system. It also includes localization of core robot parts to that end, and identifies "embodied intelligence," the application of AI to robots, as a new growth driver.