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Automotive gross sales drove North American robotic gross sales to a report excessive in 2022. | Source: A3
Despite a gradual remaining quarter, North American robotic gross sales hit a report excessive in 2022, based on the Association for Advancing Automation (A3). This is the second yr in a row North American robotic gross sales have set report highs.
North American corporations ordered 44,196 robots in 2022, an 11% improve from 2021. Those gross sales have been valued at $2.38 billion, an 18% improve from the yr earlier than.
Much of these gross sales occurred within the first 9 months of the yr. At the tip of 2021, and into 2022, the business noticed three record-high quarters in a row. Sales started to gradual in Q3, although they have been nonetheless greater than in the identical quarter in 2021.
The remaining quarter of 2022 noticed the slowest gross sales of the yr when North American corporations solely ordered 8,392 robots.
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2022’s record-high gross sales have been primarily pushed by a resurgence in orders from the automotive business. Over ales of gross sales final yr got here from automotive corporations, with 23,897 robots ordered, a 42% improve from automotive orders in 2021.
“Although labor shortage and supply chain issues impact nearly all industries in North America, automakers’ public commitment to move to electric vehicles has set in motion a resurgence of robot orders in this market,” Jeff Burnstein, president of A3, mentioned. “Automotive OEMs and components suppliers alike recognize that investing in robots is instrumental to the emergence of EVs as well as to manufacturing all vehicles as they compete to meet customer demand.”
While automotive gross sales grew, non-automotive gross sales slowed down throughout 2022. Historically, the automotive business has been the spine of robotics gross sales, however 2020 and 2021 noticed big progress in non-automotive gross sales. In the primary 9 months of 2020 and 2021, non-automotive robotics gross sales topped automotive gross sales for the primary time.
“While the numbers of robots sold to non-automotive companies isn’t as staggering as it’s been over the last couple of years, it’s clear that companies in every industry see automation as necessary for success,” Burnstein mentioned.
It ought to be famous A3 solely collects gross sales information on conventional industrial robots. It doesn’t accumulate information about autonomous cellular robots or collaborative robotic arms. If A3 recorded gross sales for a majority of these robots, too, gross sales numbers could be even greater.