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The VDMA Robotics + Automation Affiliation (VDMA R+A) is voicing considerations about Germany’s robotics trade. The German commerce affiliation, which falls underneath the VDMA umbrella that has 420-plus member firms, stated the nation’s robotics and automation trade “has misplaced competitiveness.”
The VDMA R+A forecast that Germany‘s robotics and automation trade will drop 9% in complete turnover in 2025 to €13.8 billion ($14.4 billion U.S.). “Whole turnover” is the time period Germany makes use of to explain the sum of money a rustic’s companies make from gross sales over a time frame. In line with the affiliation, the sector closed with a 6% drop in turnover in 2024 at €15.2 billion ($15.8 billion).
Dietmar Ley, who was named chairman of VDMA R+A in November 2024, cited a number of causes for the decline.
“The gross sales development within the robotics and automation trade requires motion,” he stated. “The present downward development will not be primarily based solely on cyclical fluctuations in demand however has very tangible structural causes. These embrace, for instance, the extreme dependence of the robotics and automation trade on the German automotive trade. As well as, there are weaknesses in competitiveness that enterprise and politics should deal with with constant reforms.”
VDMA R+A stated these structural weaknesses have been evident in 2024. It pointed to a 16% lower domestically in contrast with 2023.
Progress stimuli from overseas additionally faltered, exhibiting a decline of two%. The one shiny spot for the German robotics and automation trade was exports to the eurozone, with incoming orders rising by a formidable 44% in 2024, famous VDMA. The eurozone is a foreign money union of 20 member states of the European Union which have adopted the euro as their main foreign money.
Against this, the Frankfurt, Germany-based group stated international demand excluding the eurozone international locations was 13% beneath the earlier yr’s determine.
“Corporations within the German robotics and automation trade have to concentrate on their very own competitiveness,” acknowledged Ley. “The precedence is to speed up innovation. Extra agility can also be wanted to reply extra shortly to buyer calls for and to set ourselves other than opponents overseas. Lastly, we additionally have to carry prices right down to a aggressive degree.”
In June 2024, the VDMA warned that rising competitors from China was weighing by itself robotics ecosystem. “Many Chinese language suppliers have grown strongly of their residence markets and at the moment are pushing into Europe,” the group stated on the time.
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VDMA chair requires reforms
Ley additionally known as for a decided reform agenda from politicians.
“With a view to fierce world competitors, Germany can not afford disadvantages equivalent to disproportionate regulation and extreme prices,” he asserted. “The economic system wants dependable framework situations in Germany that help, not hamper, progress. Solely then robotics and automation might thrive once more.”
“All long-term progress tendencies for our progressive trade stay intact. We now need to set the fitting course,” Ley pressured.
Germany will not be alone in robotics slowdown
A3 stated industrial robotic gross sales have been flat in North America in 2024. Credit score: Steve Crowe
Germany isn’t the one nation to see its main robotics trade see a slowdown. China, the world’s largest industrial robotics marketplace for 10-plus years, anticipated its industrial robotic gross sales to say no for the primary time in 5 years in 2024.
The nation’s complete industrial robotic deliveries reached an estimated 300,000 items, down 5% from 2023, in accordance with Shenzhen Gaogong Industrial Institute (GGII). The GGII stated the decline was as a result of “clearly tightening demand” from the manufacturing trade, particularly the automotive and renewable vitality sectors.
After document back-to-back years in 2021 and 2022 through the top of the COVID-19 pandemic, industrial robotic gross sales in North America noticed a big decline in 2023 and basically flat progress in 2024, in accordance with the Affiliation for Advancing Automation (A3). On the latest A3 Enterprise Discussion board, the commerce group stated it expects industrial robotic gross sales in North America to have a gradual begin to the yr earlier than rebounding within the second half of 2025.
Jeff Burnstein, president of A3, just lately wrote an open letter to President-elect Donald Trump, saying automation is essential to reshoring manufacturing to the U.S. Burnstein really helpful that the federal authorities work with the robotics trade to develop a technique to successfully compete economically and for nationwide safety. This message was re-iterated a number of occasions on the A3 Enterprise Discussion board.
It is going to be attention-grabbing to learn the Worldwide Federation of Robotics’ (IFR) “World Robotics” report when it turns into obtainable later this yr. The annual report dives into the variety of industrial robots working in factories all over the world.
For 2023, the IFR stated there have been 4,281,585 robots working in factories worldwide, which was a ten% improve from 2022. By area, 70% of all newly deployed robots in 2023 have been put in in Asia, 17% in Europe, and 10% within the Americas.
Credit score: IFR “World Robotics Report 2024”
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