Industrial Automation Magazine India

VDMA Robotics and automation with high order intake but disrupted supply chains

Published on : Wednesday 22-06-2022

With a predicted growth of 6 percent, the industry forecast for robotics and automation is also positive for 2022.

Munich, June 21, 2022 – The robotics and automation industry in Germany is benefiting from a boom in demand: in the first four months of 2022, order intake increased by 38 percent year-on-year. The dynamic market development had already been noticeable with the results for 2021, in which industry turnover rose by 13 percent – more than expected. "The robotics and automation industry is booming," says Frank Konrad, Chairman of the VDMA Robotics + Automation Association. "However, suppliers will not be able to process the orders as quickly as usual. The challenge now is to manage bottlenecks in the supply chains.”

With a predicted growth of 6 percent, the industry forecast for robotics and automation is also positive for 2022 – but remains below previous expectations, reflecting the severely disrupted supply chains. In particular, a shortage of electrical and electronic components is extending delivery times.

The three subsectors developed differently in 2021.

·         Machine vision gained 16 percent: industry sales reached 3.1 billion euros.

·         Robotics sales rose by 13 percent to 3.5 billion euros.

·         Integrated assembly solutions recorded an 11 percent increase in sales to 7.1 billion euros.

Overall, sales in robotics and automation rose by 13 percent to 13.6 billion euros – more than originally expected.

VDMA Robotics + Automation forecasts a 7 percent increase in sales for integrated assembly solutions to 7.6 billion euros in 2022. In robotics, growth of 5 percent to 3.6 billion euros is expected. Machine vision is also set to grow by 5 percent, corresponding to sales of 3.2 billion euros.

"The overall robotics and automation forecast is plus 6 percent with an expected industry turnover of 14.4 billion euros," says Frank Konrad. "Robotics and automation in 2022 is thus almost headed for the strong pre-crisis level of 14.7 billion euros of 2019.”