Robots Crack the Factories Automation Couldn’t Touch
Robots Crack the Factories Automation Couldn’t Touch
Publish Date: 2026-07-14 14:00:00
Source Domain: www.pymnts.com
Industrial robots have historically gone where products are rigid, standardized and produced at scale. Automotive and electronics dominate global installations because their materials and sequences lend themselves to mechanical repetition, the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) reported in its World Robotics 2025 report.
Apparel has resisted the same logic. Fabrics shift, stretch and fold unpredictably. Designs change seasonally. Final sewing is still done by hand in most factories, Shanghai Garment noted. AI-powered vision systems and simpler programming interfaces are beginning to remove those barriers, making robots easier to train and redeploy across variable production lines.
China’s 15th Five-Year Plan places robotics at the center of the country’s industrial strategy, with a shift “from traditional industrial automation to high-end, intelligent robotics integrated with artificial intelligence,” according to Takayuki Ito, who was IFR president at the time. Leadership for the IFR changed July 2.
In China’s textiles and apparel sector, Chinese firms supply 100% of the robots deployed domestically, compared with 31% in automotive and 59% in electronics, according to the CSIS ChinaPower Project. The data points to a broader pattern identified by CSIS: Chinese robotics companies face virtually no foreign competition in newer automation markets, while they still compete with established global suppliers in industries where automation is more mature.
China’s Robot Installations Set a Record While New Sectors Open
The IFR found that 542,000 industrial robots were installed globally in 2024, more than double the number a decade earlier. China accounted for 295,000 units, 54% of the global total and the highest annual figure on record for any country. China’s operational robot stock exceeded 2 million units. The IFR projected 10% average annual growth in the Chinese market through 2028. Chinese domestic suppliers are also expanding into food…
