Electronics overtakes the automotive sector as the biggest user of robots

摘要

THE NUMBER OF industrial robots being bought worldwide for electrical and electronics applications overtook those for the automotive sector for the first time during 2020, according to the latest statistics from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR). While the number of robots being bought for electronic applications soared from 89,000 in 2019 to 109,000 in 2020, those for automotive applications plummeted from 102,000 to 80,000. The IFR figures also show that despite the Covid-19 pandemic, global sales of industrial robots rose slightly - by 0.5% - in 2020, with 384,000 machines being shipped. The number of robots operating worldwide climbed by 10% to exceed three million for the first time, and 2020 proved to be the third most successful year in the history of the robotics industry.