China's governments and industries have been making efforts to develop robots but there has been a lack of direction for the development in terms of application.
There were 36,560 robots sold in the China market in 2013, growing 60% on year, and Harbin Institute of Technology in Heilongjiang Province, northeastern China, has become a leader in R&D of robotics, the report said. As of the end of 2014, more than 4,000 firms were running businesses related to robots.
Robot development in China has focused on replacing labor-intensive production in the manufacturing sector that has been faced with wage hikes and labor shortages. Therefore, manufacturing automation is expected to account for 70% of robots to be used in China over the next five years.
However, local governments have been subsidizing robot development indiscriminately, neglecting the fact that robots are needed more by industries involving high pollution, dangerous operations and heavy-duty moving, rather than general manufacturing activities, Shanghai Huitong Automation Technology Development pointed out.
