Robot market growth slows as trade war hits industrial spending-robot industry chief

YASKAWA Electric

18/10/2018 06:38

TOKYO, Oct 18 (Reuters) - An escalating trade war between
the United States and China has dampened manufacturers' appetite
for investment in equipment, causing growth in the industrial
robot market to slow, the chief of the global robot industry
group said.
    Many global manufacturers "are now in a wait-and-see mode,
wondering whether to shift production (away from China) to,
let's say, Vietnam or the United States," said Junji Tsuda,
chief of the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), in an
interview on Thursday.
    IFR, which brings together nearly 60 global robot suppliers
and integrators, predicts worldwide industrial robot sales this
year to grow 10 percent compared to last year's 30 percent jump.
    China is the world's largest robots market with a 36 percent
global share, with its sales volume exceeding the total of
Europe and the Americas combined.
    Tsuda, also the chairman of Japan's Yaskawa Electric Corp
 6506.T , said the manufacturers would move out of the
wait-and-see mode by the end of this year.
    It will take a while for the direction of the trade war to
be clear, Tsuda said. "But global demand for smartphones,
semiconductors and autos have been solid, and the time will
eventually come that they can wait no longer and will resume
investment to meet the demand."
    Yaskawa, one of the world's top robot manufacturers, last
week cut its annual operating profit forecast to 59 billion yen
($524.40 million) from 65.5 billion yen, citing a slowdown in
smartphone-related demand in China and growing caution over the
trade dispute.
    From next year onwards, however, IFR expects the robot
market growth to pick up again, forecasting an average 14
percent increase per year through 2021.
($1 = 112.5100 yen)

 (Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Muralikumar
Anantharaman)
 ((Makiko.Yamazaki@thomsonreuters.com; 81-3-6441-1039;))