Order intake within the German robotics and automation sector has grown 11 per cent in the first four months of 2015 compared to the same period last year, according to the VDMA trade association Robotics and Automation.
In 2014 turnover reached €11.4 billion, an increase of nine per cent. Five per cent growth is expected in turnover this year. ‘Prospects are good that the industry will reach the turnover mark of €12 billion by the end of the year,’ said Hans-Dieter Baumtrog, chairman of VDMA Robotics and Automation.
The robotics and automation market is a good indicator for the machine vision market, which is closely linked to automation. The latest figures from the European Machine Vision Association, presented at its business conference in Athens from 11 to 13 June, were seven per cent growth in Q1 of 2015 for the European vision market. The EMVA estimates 10 per cent growth for 2015 as a whole.
The VDMA Robotics and Automation group reported that robotics turnover increased by seven per cent in 2014 in Germany, reaching €3.3 billion. Machine vision, ranging from optical quality inspection to automated toll road enforcement, recorded the largest increase of 16 per cent, reaching €1.9 billion according to the report.
The VDMA Robotics and Automation figures state that demand for automation products came mainly outside Germany, with the largest export market being China.
According to an International Federation of Robotics (IFR) survey, more than 225,000 robots were newly installed in 2014, a rise of 27 per cent compared to the previous year. Installation of robots in Asia increased by 42 per cent, mainly driven by China, while Europe grew just four per cent and North America eight per cent. ‘China does not content itself with employing robots. It is the express strategy of the Chinese government to become a strong and innovative robot country,’ said Baumtrog.
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