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December 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 2
CEE firms to invest heavily
into robots
Companies are increasingly investing into indus- trial robots to stay competitive, which has become a priority in the CEE region, especially in the
fast growing Visegrad 4 economies. Robots are the answer to growing labour shortages in Cen- tral Europe that is already driving up wages and increasing inflationary pressure that is threat-
ing Central Europe’s competitiveness. Firms in the region are struggling to find workers with the skills they need.
As a historical aside, the word “robot” is a Czech invention, coined by Czech playwright and jour- nalist Karel Čapek, who introduced it in his 1920 hit play, R.U.R., or Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti (Rossum's Universal Robots). The root of the word is from the Czech "robota" or "forced labour".
Even after attracting millions of migrant work- ers from abroad, especially from Ukraine, Central Europe has only partially eased the pressure and investments into industrial robots are expected to continue to rise in the longer-term.
A considerable increase in robot sales has already been seen across the CEE region, the report says,
with the exceptions of Romania and Slovakia — the latter somewhat surprisingly given the impor- tance of its auto manufacturing industry, which internationally has emerged as the top investor into robots.
The latest World Robotics Report shows that ship- ments to the region increased by 35% compared to global growth of 30% last year. The rise in ship- ments of industrial robots to the CEE region is expected to continue going strong at 28% in 2018, compared to just 10% globally, followed by a com- pound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22% between 2019 and 2021 (CAGR of 14% worldwide).
In absolute terms, the CEE market will remain small compared to those in China, the world's largest market with 290,000 robots — three times as many as all of Europe combined — projected to be shipped in 2021. Also among the top 5 markets worldwide are Japan, South Korea, the US and Germany. In value terms, the value of the market has already reached $16.2bn worth of robots were shipped in 2017, up 21% y/y and is showing no signs of slowing down.
“Industrial robots are a crucial part of the pro- gress of manufacturing industry,” says Junji Tsuda, president of the International Federation of Robotics, in a press release.