Chinese storage robot manufacturers are actively deploying overseas businesses through the strength of technology, experience, and price.
Global Market Dynamic
The global logistics automation market size was over USD 50 billion in 2022, and is expected to reach USD 123 billion by 2030, growing at a high CAGR of 12% during the forecast period 2022-2030. This exponential growth is driven by the demand for automation of warehouses and storage facilities, especially the need for automation of logistics systems in major countries such as Japan, the United States, South Korea, and Germany has activated the logistics robot market.
China Market Overview
According to the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, in 2022, China's total social logistics will reach 347.6 trillion yuan, and the total revenue of the logistics industry will be 12.7 trillion yuan. China's logistics market has been the largest logistics market in the world for seven consecutive years. There are more than 9,000 A-level logistics companies nationwide, and the total revenue of China's top 50 logistics companies is nearly CNY 2 trillion (USD 276.07 billion).
With the recovery of China's economy and the encouragement of policies after the impact of Covid-19 in 2021, the investment and financing of the warehousing robots industry became active. The traditional warehousing industry was highly dependent on labor and has limited operating capabilities during peak business periods, therefore, to urgent of achieving a breakthrough in the industry's crucial problem has driven the thriving of intelligent logistics and warehousing automation. In 2021, the number of public investments and financing events was as high as 29, and the financing amount was as high as CNY 7.96 billion.
Leading Chinese enterprises globally
As the leading enterprises in China's logistics equipment industry, KSC and SIASUN entered the field of logistics robots very early and successfully exported them overseas. In 2012, Kunming AGV was successfully exported to Brazil, and then introduced to Thailand, Kuwait, Belgium, South Korea, the United States, and other markets. Among the many products of SIASUN, AGV was the first to go abroad. As early as 2007, SIASUN won the global bidding project of General Motors AGV, which opened the first AGV to go overseas.
In the past two years, emerging logistics robot companies represented by Geek+ and Kuaicang have also begun to deploy overseas markets, and the proportion of overseas business is increasing, and the popularity is not inferior to the domestic market.
At present, most of China's leading storage robot manufacturers focus on the storage link in smart logistics and deploy overseas, and there is a certain degree of homogeneous competition. In the future, with the excavation of sub-industries, it is expected to form a pattern of dislocation competition.
Core Business and Competitive Advantages of Warehousing Machine Products Manufacturers
Core business: based on different customer needs and application scenarios, each warehouse robot manufacturer gradually began to dig into subdivided tracks for dislocation competition, such as Hairou’s innovative box robot
Overseas business: head storage robot manufacturers have generally carried out overseas business layouts, of which Geek+'s overseas business accounts for as much as 70%, and the proportion of the overseas business of domestic storage robot manufacturers may be further increased in the future.
Competitive advantages: Competitive advantages focus on the advantages of software and hardware R&D, marketing capabilities, and after-sales services. At present, there is a certain degree of homogeneity and competition. In the future, innovation capabilities may become the core competitiveness of robot manufacturers
Port terminal application: At present, storage robots are mainly used in subdivided applications in the two major fields of commercial distribution and industrial production. E-commerce, logistics, etc. belong to commercial distribution, while automobiles, medicine, shoes, and clothing, etc. belong to industrial manufacturing.
Why China
There is a high demand for storage robots in overseas markets, and Chinese storage robot manufacturers are actively deploying overseas businesses through the strength of technology, experience, and price.
The potential overseas market: From the perspective of the area of warehousing and logistics facilities in overseas countries, the United States is relatively leading. The area is 1.25 billion square meters. Overseas countries have a higher acceptance of automation, and there is a demand for intelligent solutions to replace and upgrade a large number of automation equipment. The overall labor costs of the United States, Japan, and the Pacific Ocean are relatively high, and the application of storage robots can effectively reduce the labor costs of overseas storage industries
Technical advantages: Although the "e-commerce + storage robot" model began with Amazon's acquisition of Kiva in the United States, the massive express delivery business brought about by the booming e-commerce in China has forced China's storage robot technology to upgrade rapidly. After being pushed by the e-commerce industry and empowered by technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing, China's storage robot industry has fiercely competed, and gradually extended product application scenarios from e-commerce to manufacturing and other industries and their sub-industries.
Experience Advantage: China currently has more than 2,000 overseas warehouses with a total area of more than 16 million square meters. China is a big country in robot manufacturing. In 2020, the number of new industrial robots in China will rank first in the world. Accumulated a wealth of storage robot customization and project implementation experience, with the complete supply chain control capabilities of storage robot manufacturing.
Price advantage: The product prices of Chinese warehousing robot manufacturers are lower than those of foreign countries. Due to the maturity of warehousing robot-related technologies and lower costs, many Chinese competitors have started a price war. As a result, manufacturers' profit space has been continuously compressed, and prices will be further dropped.