Surging global demand and China's complete industrial supply chain are driving robot makers to move beyond selling machines, toward delivering customized automation systems and services. At a Foshan production base in south China's Guangdong, assembly lines are running at full capacity. The company’s market director said orders from Europe and the United States for robots used in welding and for stacking goods in logistics operations have surged this year, and the factory expects output to double.
"There has been a strong market demand for this 60kg high-payload collaborative robot across European and American markets this year. For instance, in the logistics palletizing application, the robotic arm needs to continuously handle 60kg heavy goods. Since all core components including motors and drives are fully independently developed by our enterprise, we can guarantee the stability of the complete robot unit. Compared with similar foreign products, our domestically made collaborative robots are 30 percent to 40 percent cheaper," said Lin Shen, marketing director of Huayan Robotics Company.
Over the years, China’s industrial robot sector has built extensive expertise through rapid technology upgrades and expanding use cases. That experience now spans more than 70 major industries, giving companies a deep foundation in both technology and solutions. As a result, many firms are moving beyond simply selling equipment, shifting toward integrated automation systems and service-driven packages for overseas clients.
"China's industrial robots are applied in over 70 major industry sectors. Therefore, this industry application experience has enabled us to accumulate and consolidate a great deal of expertise in robot technology and solutions. Our offering is essentially service-driven, and overseas revenue now accounts for 20 percent to 30 percent of our total revenue," said Zhang Peng, vice president of TOPSTAR Technology Company.
As the global manufacturing sector faces surging demand for flexible automation, Chinese robot makers are stepping up. With a complete industrial chain at home, they hold clear advantages in cost control and after-sales service. Those strengths are enabling them to meet overseas clients’ growing need for customized automation.
"Since January, the demand for our export orders has increased by more than 30 percent. Supported by our after-sales service team based in Southeast Asia, we can now deliver rapid responses to any customized demands from overseas clients, and collaborate with them on development," said Li Linfeng, vice general manager of the intelligent logistics department of Shenzhen Yuanrong Intelligent Manufacturing Company.
"The global intelligent upgrading of manufacturing industry has also brought growing demand for China's robotics industry, including the possibility of AI and embodied intelligence technologies to be deployed in a wider range of scenarios," said Bi Yalei, secretary-general of the Shenzhen Robotics Association.
Chinese robot makers expand global market, shift from products to solutions
Serbian fruit farmers, celebrating a apricot harvest after years of crop failures, are now scrambling to sell their produce, as a searing heatwave threatens to spoil the bounty, leaving many with no choice but to sell high-quality fruit to processors at rock-bottom prices.
After several consecutive years of reduced yields due to extreme weather conditions such as frost and drought, orchards across the country are enjoying a bountiful harvest this year, with apricot production expected to reach a record 50,000 tonnes.
However, with a new wave of high temperatures setting in, local farmers are facing the challenge of harvesting and selling the fresh fruit in a timely manner.
Grocka is Serbia's largest and most important apricot-growing region.
After several consecutive years of drought and frost, this year's apricot crop has finally yielded a long-awaited bumper harvest.
Purchasers of a local purchasing station said that the daily sales of the fruit in recent days have stood at around 10 tonnes, but prices vary significantly depending on the destination of the fresh fruit.
"It is used as fresh fruit for export. It is also reused for industrial processing. First-class fruit intended for export has fetched prices this year ranging from 70 (about 68 U.S. cents) to 120 dinars (about 1.17 U.S. dollars) per kilogram of apricot," said Bojan Mitrovic, a fruit buyer.
However, the overall average purchase price is only 35 (about 34 U.S. cents) to 40 dinars (about 39 U.S. cents) per kilogram, he said.
With a new heatwave approaching, temperatures across most of Serbia are expected to exceed 35 degrees Celsius, with some areas projected to reach 40 degrees Celsius.
Fruits such as apricots have an extremely short shelf life.
With a large volume of fresh fruit from the harvest flooding the market within a short period, local cold storage and cold-chain logistics capacity cannot keep up.
Farmers must sell their produce quickly after harvest, forcing them to sell large quantities of high-quality apricots to processing plants at low prices.
Fruit cultivation in Serbia is still primarily carried out in small family orchards.
This fragmented production structure makes it difficult for individual farmers to bear the construction costs of modern cold storage facilities.
As farmers race against time and the weather to harvest and sell their fresh fruit, the Serbian government and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia have also taken multiple measures to coordinate the various stages of harvesting, transportation and sales to help fruit farmers cope with the "sweet burden" brought on by the harvest.
"[There are] basically two streamlines. One is being distributed to the Ministry of Economy through the Development Agency, which every year has programs for supporting such endeavors. On the other hand, there is the support especially for the small farmers through national support -- through the Ministry of Agriculture. The Chamber of Commerce has founded the daughter company, which is called Serbia Export. Its main task is to aggregate the offer and to be the middleman in finding and aggregating the small production businesses in Serbia, or relatively small or even the bigger ones, so it can cooperate with, for instance, Chinese partners," said Veljko Jovanovic, an analyst of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia.
Serbia's apricot harvest turns sour as heatwave bites
