Many robots are already used in automobile production, such as here at the BMW main plant. In many industries it is different.
(Photo: dpa)
Munich The robotics group ABB is investing $280 million in a new campus in Sweden, increasing its own production capacity for Europe by 50 percent. The company wants to “better serve its customers in Europe with locally manufactured products in a growing market,” said ABB boss Björn Rosengren on Wednesday.
According to the industry association IFR, robot sales in Europe rose by six percent to 72,000 new installations last year. In the relatively weak Corona year 2020, only 53,000 new robots were sold here. This means that growth was only half as strong as in the USA.
However, a lot of new production is currently being built there – because of subsidies under the “Inflation Reduction Act” and low energy prices. But the trend is also showing a sustained upward trend in Europe.
New battery factories are highly automated
In addition to the long-standing trend towards automation of production, important future technologies are also driving demand. The production of electric cars and batteries is expected to increase significantly in the coming years. To achieve this, manufacturers are building new, highly automated factories.
Most companies also experienced interrupted supply chains during the corona pandemic and at the beginning of the Ukraine war. Some of them announced that they would bring some of their production back to Europe. For this so-called reshoring, they would need automated production machines at their European locations, which could further drive demand for robotics. So far, the industry’s hopes have only been partially fulfilled.
The shortage of skilled workers makes robots attractive for many other industries
“A lot of people are talking about reshoring, but I don’t really see it yet,” said Enrico Krog Iversen at an IFR conference in Munich. As CEO, the Dane once made the cobot world market leader Universal Robots big and now wants to use the D:Ploy platform to attract medium-sized companies in particular to the easy use of robots.
Ralf Völlinger from the world market leader Fanuc is convinced that companies in Europe will not be able to escape the automation trend despite many hurdles and reservations: “We will see a lot of automation in industries that have so far only used a few robots.”
The group is increasing its robot production in Europe by 50 percent.
(Photo: ABB)
Above all, the shortage of skilled workers will mean that the automation industry will boom in the next few years. Robots are now being used in bakeries as well as in the catering industry. The experts at Interact Analysis expect that robot sales in Europe will increase by an average of seven percent annually until 2027.
ABB has just opened a new sample factory in China
Like their customers, robot companies such as ABB, Fanuc and Kuka want to broaden their production in view of the global uncertainties. In recent years, companies have focused primarily on China, which has become the largest robotics market in the world.
At the end of last year, ABB opened a new, fully automated factory near Shanghai in China. The company wants to triple its production capacity in China and is investing $150 million in the location.
This is now followed by major investment in the European market. The new campus in Västeras, Sweden, is intended to replace the existing factory. ABB is planning highly automated production, research and development facilities and training centers here. A fleet of autonomous, mobile robots will of course be responsible for transporting materials and products between warehouses, assembly stations and production cells.
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