On January 14, 2026, the General Administration of Customs released a set of key data at a press conference: In 2025, China's industrial robot exports grew by 48.7%, with exports exceeding imports for the first time.
This means China has become a net exporter of industrial robots, a significant milestone in the development of China's intelligent manufacturing equipment industry.
Behind this change lies China's deep accumulation as the world's largest industrial robot market for 12 consecutive years, as well as the precise alignment of China's supply with global demand against the backdrop of the intelligent transformation of global manufacturing.
01 Full-Year Growth
Wang Jun, Deputy Head of the General Administration of Customs, clearly stated at the press conference that in 2025, China's exports of high-tech products increased by 13.2% year-on-year. Among these, exports of specialized equipment, high-end machine tools, and industrial robots grew by 20.6%, 21.5%, and 48.7%, respectively.
The performance of industrial robots was particularly outstanding, with their export growth rate ranking among the forefront of high-tech products, and achieving net exports for the first time.
This achievement is built on sustained high-speed growth. In the first half of 2025, the export value of China's industrial robots increased by 61.5% year-on-year.
Even earlier, in the first quarter of 2025, private enterprises, as the main force in foreign trade, saw their exports of industrial robots increase by 67.4%.
02 Export Pattern
The export market for China's industrial robots exhibits diversified characteristics. In the first half of 2025, Vietnam became the largest destination for China's industrial robot exports, with an export value of $86.35 million, more than doubling compared to the same period last year.
Mexico and Thailand ranked as the second and third largest export markets, respectively. Exports to Mexico reached $59.22 million, a surge of approximately 274.78% year-on-year.
Among emerging markets, the year-on-year growth rate of export value to countries such as Russia and Poland both exceeded 100%. This change in market structure is closely related to the adjustment of the global manufacturing industry chain and regional layout.
03 Global Position
The rise of China's industrial robot industry is inseparable from its established leading position in the global market.
According to a report released by the International Federation of Robotics in September 2025, the stock of industrial robots in operation in China exceeded 2 million units in 2024, ranking first in the world. The global stock of industrial robots in operation was 4.664 million units, with China accounting for over 43%.
In terms of increment, 542,000 new industrial robots were installed globally in 2024, of which China installed 295,000 units, accounting for more than half of the global total. China has maintained its position as the world's largest industrial robot market for 12 consecutive years, with China accounting for more than half of the global new industrial robot installations in the past three years.
04 Industrial Foundation
The competitiveness of domestically produced industrial robots stems from a complete industrial chain and technological accumulation. China's robotics industry has formed a relatively complete whole-industry chain system, with significant progress in key technologies and components such as precision reducers and high-performance servo drive systems.
As of the first half of 2025, China held over 190,000 valid patents related to robotics, accounting for about two-thirds of the global total.
The market structure is also changing. According to MIR DATABANK data, the domestic market share of Chinese industrial robot manufacturers increased to 52.3% in 2024, changing the situation of foreign monopoly.
05 Future Prospects
The scale of China's intelligent manufacturing equipment industry is expected to exceed 5 trillion yuan in 2025. According to the "14th Five-Year Plan for Intelligent Manufacturing Development," by the end of 2025, 70% of manufacturing enterprises above designated size will have basically achieved digitalization and networking.
The growth of China's industrial robot exports is expected to be sustainable in the short term of 3-5 years, but long-term development requires breaking through high-end technology bottlenecks and trade barriers.
With the development of high-end products such as humanoid robots and AI collaborative robots, China's industrial robot exports are shifting from "high-cost-performance substitution" to "technology leadership".
The status of net exporter of industrial robots is not just a turning point in trade data. In 2024, the stock of industrial robots in operation in China exceeded 2 million units, ranking first in the world and accounting for over 43% of the global stock.
China's industrial robot industry has built a complete industrial chain from core components to complete machine manufacturing, and then to system integration. The domestic market share of Chinese local brands exceeded that of foreign brands for the first time in 2024, reaching 52.3%.
Busy Chinese-made welding robots in Vietnamese factories, and precisely assembling Chinese-made collaborative robots on Mexican automotive production lines – these scenes are being repeated all over the world.
