NA robotic orders show YoY growth

So far in 2019, North American companies have ordered 23,894 robotic units, valued at USD 1.3 billion. In the third quarter only, North American companies ordered 7,446 robots, valued at USD 438 million. Units ordered as well as revenue are up 1% compared to third quarter of last year. A press release announcing the data attributed the largest driver of the year-to-date growth in units ordered to automotive OEMs (47%), followed by plastics and rubber (15%), and food and consumer goods (4%). However, another indicator of long-term health for the robotics industry is the number of orders from non-automotive customers, which remained near the previous record, the press release also said. A3 and RIA President Jeff Burnstein said, “We continue to see improvement in the robotics market. At this time last year, we saw a dip in orders of around 15%, so it’s encouraging to see a recovery through the third quarter. We hope to end the year strong and see growth in 2020 as well.” Burnstein also said he has seen indications that companies previously uninterested in robotics technology are beginning to express a desire to invest in the sector, based on the wide variety of industries who attended the recent Collaborative Robots, Advanced Vision and AI Conference in San Jose. Earlier this year, the International Federation of Robots, a non-profit organization tracking robot installations worldwide, cited “robot density in the U.S. manufacturing industry at 200 robots per 10,000 employees vs. 97 in China (2017). The trend to automate production in both domestic and global markets is the main driving force of robot installations in the U.S. The general industry sector, particularly the food and beverage industry (+64%) and the plastic and chemical products industry (+30%), had the highest growth."