2014 Robot Orders Up 28% in Units, 19% in Dollars over 2013

2014 was a record-setting year for industrial robots

Robot orders: 25,425 robots valued at $1.6 billion for North American customers in 2014 set new record.

Robot shipments also set new records, with 25,425 robots valued at $1.5 billion being shipped to North American customers in 2014. Shipments grew 13 percent in units and six percent in dollars over the previous records set in 2013.

Drivers:

Automotive industry was the primary driver of growth in 2014. Orders increased 45 percent (Y/Y).
Non-automotive industries grew at seven percent over total for 2013.
Big gains in non-automotive industries for 2014 in terms of order growth were plastics and rubber (25 percent), semiconductor and electronics (21 percent), and metals (16 percent).

Fastest growing applications:

Arc welding (+58 percent)
Spot welding (+57 percent)
Assembly (+16 percent)
Material handling (+11 percent)

Why auto industry continues strong robot purchases:

Meeting production demands. Sales boom year for vehicles: The full year vehicle sales finished up 5.9 percent from 2013 at 16.52 million vehicles, according to Autodata. 2014 was the best year since 2006 and a fifth consecutive year of growth.
Continued boom in vehicles: Analysts see sales momentum continuing into 2015.
Low gas prices.
According to AUTOMATION & ROBOTICS IN AUTOMOTIVE MANUFACTURING 2014-2024: Market Prospects for Industrial Robots, Processes & Technologies in Vehicle Production, industrial robot orders driven by:
Megatrends, like stricter emission requirements, new safety regulations and rising consumer trends, require modernization of the automotive manufacturing process to meet the rising demand.
Flexible automation and robotics offer manufacturers capability to achieve shorter time-to-market and reduce product life-cycle costs, including energy consumption, while ensuring quality, reliability and economic efficiency.

Other factors:

Need to address global ?connected car? (value: $30 billion by 2015).

Growing demand for cars equipped with V2X (like Wi-Fi technology, allowing cars to wirelessly exchange data with other cars and traffic signals).

Introduction of co-robots to ?final? assembly work (e.g. BMW human-friendly co-robots perform the final assembly of the car doors and door sealing operations.

Multi-tasking robots: Robots used in the auto industry can complete not just one task but a variety of tasks such as painting, welding, finishing.

Who manufactured what?

According to the International Federation of Robotics, more than half of the robots manufactured in 2013 were made in Japan.