Chinese robot makers expand global market, shift from products to solutions

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

Rally participants gathered in the Japanese capital on Aug 9, which also marked the 81st anniversary of the Nagasaki atomic bombing, to voice strong opposition to the government's push to boost defense spending and revise the war-renouncing Article 9 of the national Constitution.

Holding anti-war placards, chanting anti-war slogans, protesters warned that remilitarizing the nation would betray its pacifist ideals and endanger future generations.

"Defense spending keeps increasing. Based on Article 9 of the Constitution, Japan pledged never to wage war again, yet it keeps strengthening its military. I find this extremely dangerous. They are also trying to revise Article 9. So I believe that for the sake of future young people and children, Article 9 must never be revised. Japan decided never to repeat the mistakes of waging a war after its defeat in WWII. I think we should continue to safeguard that commitment," said a rally participant.

For many in the crowd, the shadow of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remains a powerful moral compass as they believe that militarization offers no path forward for a nation that knows the devastation of war firsthand.

"Japan is the only country in the world to have suffered atomic bombings. Yet now Japan is going to deploy missiles. I believe Japan must never possess nuclear weapons," said another rally participant.

"I believe Japan has no future if it goes down the path of militarization. Nuclear weapons are absolutely bad for Japan," said a third woman, also a rally participant.

Beyond moral objections, some demonstrators said that Japan's economic vulnerabilities articulate that saber-rattling is a luxury the country cannot afford.

"I can't help but wonder what on earth a country with only a 36 percent food self-sufficiency rate would be fighting with. I have always been opposed to war, and I'm deeply dissatisfied with what the Takaichi administration is doing now," said another rally participant.

Other rally participants said that seeing revision of the Constitution could unleash unchecked military expansion, stripping away the very safeguards that have kept Japan at peace for eight decades.

"Article 9 of the Constitution is the key. If the nature of the Self-Defense Forces is elevated to a level beyond collective self-defense, which is explicitly written into the Constitution, it will allow the authority of the Self-Defense Forces to expand without limit. So no matter what, I want to prevent this from happening," said one more rally participant.

Japanese citizens rally against Takaichi's military expansion, constitutional revision