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Cleaning robot makers in Jiangsu race to meet surging overseas orders

China

China

China

Cleaning robot makers in Jiangsu race to meet surging overseas orders

2026-05-10 17:35 Last Updated At:05-11 14:52

Driven by the latest rising trend in China's smart electronics sector, manufacturers of intelligent cleaning robots have rolled out a series of new products in the eastern Jiangsu Province, with overseas orders keeping production lines running at full capacity.

At a cleaning robot manufacturing enterprise in Suzhou City, all production lines are operating at full capacity to fulfill overseas orders for advanced products.

"Our value of exports in the first quarter of this year grew by more than 50 percent, driven primarily by our robotic vacuum cleaners. We updated the functions of drum-type mopping and rapid charging, which has been recognized by customers in Southeast Asia and Europe. Therefore, our exports to Europe and Southeast Asia have increased significantly in the first half of this year," said Ma Xianbin, chief public-relation officer of a robotics company in Suzhou.

The rapid growth in exports stems from the company's precise understanding of market demand. Since the beginning of this year, the company has responded quickly to different demand scenarios, carrying out customized design and development, enabling wave after wave of new products to quickly capture the global market. "Regular products of this kind typically have a diameter of 38 centimeters. However, this product has a diameter of only 28 centimeters, allowing it to easily reach into very low and narrow spaces. We have also designed a handle for it, which makes it very convenient to use. Now we can update each generation roughly every six to nine months. Since we develop and manufacture everything ourselves, from underlying technologies and key components to the finished products, we are able to move at a relatively fast pace," he said.

The Qilin Technology Innovation Park in Nanjing City has gathered more than 100 robot-related enterprises.

At a company that manufactures intelligent robots for train inspection, the research and development team is currently updating and upgrading the visual algorithm model.

At present, the inspection robots developed independently by this company have achieved an overall detection accuracy rate of over 95 percent, with the correct detection rate for loose parts, missing components, and foreign objects exceeding 98 percent.

"To better meet the needs of our customers in Southeast Asian, we made a dedicated trip overseas to conduct on-site inspections and validation. Taking into account the differences in overseas train models, we used a high-precision structured light camera mounted on the robot to capture complete 3D spatial images of the train bodies, and also carried out customized development of AI recognition algorithm," said Zhu Hao, product manager of a robotics company in Nanjing.

In the first quarter of this year, the company successfully achieved the first application of its products in the Thai market. In addition, for potential customers in the European and Southeast Asian markets, the company has provided targeted, personalized, and differentiated services.

"In addition to leveraging the support and collaboration of leading enterprises in the industry chain to 'go global,' we have also placed great importance on exploring independently our own strategies of going abroad. This year has been a year of rapid growth for our overseas business. We expect that our overseas business will grow by 300 percent by the end of this year. At the same time, we expect that over the next three years, our overseas business will account for more than 35 percent of the company's total market revenue," said Wu Mengying, deputy general manager of a robotics company in Nanjing.

Cleaning robot makers in Jiangsu race to meet surging overseas orders

Cleaning robot makers in Jiangsu race to meet surging overseas orders

A gold buying craze is sweeping China, with consumers piling into the precious metal to preserve and grow value as prices hover at record highs.

According to data from the China Gold Association, the country's gold consumption exceeded 303 tonnes in the first quarter of this year, up 4.41 percent year on year.

Behind this slight overall increase lies a significant divergence in the structure of gold consumption: While gold jewelry sales continued to face pressure, consumption of investment-grade gold products such as gold bars and coins surged by 46.4 percent year on year.

At the Shuibei market, a gold jewelry manufacturing and trading hub in the southern metropolis of Shenzhen, investment-grade gold products and gold recycling services are showing clear signs of growth.

"Investment gold has risen quite a bit recently. Buying some might help preserve value. Plus, seeing that the central bank is also buying gold now, I figured setting up a regular investment plan probably won't go wrong,'' said a buyer.

In addition to the popularity of investment-grade gold products, gold recycling volumes have remained at high levels since the start of the year.

Merchants at the Shuibei market said that gold recycling volumes have been climbing steadily, with monthly volumes reaching over 500 grams.

In Beijing, sales of gold bars through banks have also surged sharply this year, while subscriptions for gold-related wealth management products and funds have notably increased.

This year, the number of gold investment clients and the scale of transactions have grown markedly at many bank branches in Beijing.

"(Regarding household asset allocation) 30 percent should be invested in gold. I believe gold offers better risk resistance and is more stable," said an investor.

Driven by falling interest rates, some investors have also shifted their funds toward purchasing gold or gold-related investments.

"Subscriptions for wealth management products and funds linked to gold are seven times higher than the same period last year, and the number of clients is nearly four times higher. Conservative investors prefer 'fixed income plus' structured wealth management products, while experienced investors favor products such as gold ETF (exchange traded fund) or FOF (fund of funds)," said Yu Wei, deputy general manager of the Operations Department at China Everbright Bank's Beijing Branch.

This year, gold prices have fluctuated sharply, with spot gold price once peaking at nearly 5,600 U.S. dollars per ounce and bottoming out at about 4,098 U.S. dollars per ounce.

High prices drive up demand for gold purchases in China

High prices drive up demand for gold purchases in China

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