India’s automotive sector is investing in robotics and automation, according to new figures from the International Federation of Robotics.
Sales of industrial robots into the automotive market in India rose by 27 per cent in 2017 compared to the previous year. Automotive production had a share of 62 per cent of the total supply of industrial robots in India in 2017.
Sales of industrial robots in India reached 3,412 new units installed in 2017, an increase of 30 per cent compared to 2016. Between 2012 and 2017 India saw a compound annual sales growth rate of 18 per cent.
The findings are from the World Robotics Report 2018, published by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR).
‘The automotive industry will remain the main driver of the increasing number of robot installations in India,’ commented Junji Tsuda, president of the IFR. ‘Numerous new projects have been announced by international and domestic car manufacturers striving to expand production capacities. Moreover, OEMs increasingly require local supply of automotive parts.’
India still has a low robot density, but shows strong potential for increased automation in manufacturing, making it a good future market for machine vision equipment suppliers.
The subcontinent has a robot density of 85 industrial robots per 10,000 employees in the automotive sector, which is less than a quarter of that in Indonesia (378 units) and far less than China (505 units).
In 2017, India ranked number 14 in terms of the global annual supply of industrial robots, immediately behind Thailand and Spain. As far as the operational stock is concerned, India ranked 13th after Canada, Spain and Singapore.
Sales of industrial robots into the plastics, rubber, and metal industries in India have also been growing; in electronics sales increased by 46 per cent in 2017.
‘The general industry will further invest in production capacities and modernisation to serve this growing consumer market [electronics],’ said Tsuda. ‘Consequently, further acceleration of the growth in robot sales is expected between 2018 and 2021.’
