TOKYO (Reuters) - An escalating trade war between the United States and China has dampened manufacturers' appetite for investment in equipment, causing growth in the industrial robot market to slow, the chief of the global robot industry group said.
Many global manufacturers "are now in a wait-and-see mode, wondering whether to shift production (away from China) to, let's say, Vietnam or the United States," said Junji Tsuda, chief of the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), in an interview on Thursday.
IFR, which brings together nearly 60 global robot suppliers and integrators, predicts worldwide industrial robot sales this year to grow 10 percent compared to last year's 30 percent jump.
China is the world's largest robots market with a 36 percent global share, with its sales volume exceeding the total of Europe and the Americas combined.
Tsuda, also the chairman of Japan's Yaskawa Electric Corp, said the manufacturers would move out of the wait-and-see mode by the end of this year.
It will take a while for the direction of the trade war to be clear, Tsuda said. "But global demand for smartphones, semiconductors and autos have been solid, and the time will eventually come that they can wait no longer and will resume investment to meet the demand."
Yaskawa, one of the world's top robot manufacturers, last week cut its annual operating profit forecast to 59 billion yen ($524.40 million) from 65.5 billion yen, citing a slowdown in smartphone-related demand in China and growing caution over the trade dispute.
From next year onwards, however, IFR expects the robot market growth to pick up again, forecasting an average 14 percent increase per year through 2021.
($1 = 112.5100 yen)
(Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
