![[article image]](https://cacm.acm.org/system/assets/0003/9083/012821_AP_robots.large.jpg?1611846161&1611846161 "Robots at a factory in Jiujiang in China's Jiangxi province.")
China continues to be the biggest market for industrial robots, even though the market’s growth had been slowing prior to the pandemic, due to the U.S.-China trade war.
The International Federation of Robotics reported 140,500 new installations of industrial robots in China in 2019, down 9% from the prior year but nearly three times the number of installations seen in second-place Japan.
As China has gotten the Covid-19 pandemic under control, demand for automation equipment picked up, and Credit Suisse estimates that China's industrial-robotics market grew 9.5% last year. Citi reported that nearly three-quarters of China's industrial-robotics market is controlled by foreign firms like Japan's Fanuc and Europe's ABB, but some Chinese automation-equipment companies grew their market shares last year due to Covid-related supply-chain disruptions among their foreign rivals.
From "Battle of the Robots Still Favors Japan, Europe—For Now"
The Wall Street Journal (01/20/21) Jacky Wong
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