Page 24 - bne_Magazine_February_2019

24 I Cover story bne February 2019
A steady increase in the number of robots shipped to CEE is expected in the coming years, IFR projections show.
CEE firms to invest
heavily into robots
ments into industrial robots are expect- ed 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 excep- tions of Romania and Slovakia – the latter somewhat surprisingly given the importance of its auto manufacturing industry, which internationally has emerged as the top investor into robots.
The latest World Robotics Report shows that shipments to CEE increased by 35% compared to global growth
of 30% in 2017. The rise in shipments 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 compound 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 progress of manufacturing industry,” says Junji Tsuda, president of the International Federation
of Robotics, in a press release.
“Robots evolve with many cutting- edge technologies. They are vision recognition, skill learning, failure prediction utilising AI, a new concept of man-machine-collaboration plus easy programming and so on. They will help improve productivity of
bne IntelliNews
As global shipments of industrial robots reached a record high
of 381,000 last year, the pace
of growth in the Central and Eastern European market outstripped almost all of the rest of the world in the uptake of robots, data from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) shows.
Companies are increasingly investing into industrial robots to stay com- petitive, 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 Central Europe that is already driving up wages and increas- ing inflationary pressure that is threat- ing Central Europe’s competitiveness. Firms in the region are struggling to find workers with the skills they need.
www.bne.eu
As a historical aside, the word “robot” is a Czech invention, coined by Czech playwright and journalist Karel Capek, 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 workers from abroad, especially from Ukraine, Central Europe has only partially eased the pressure and invest-
“Companies are increasingly investing into industrial robots to stay competitive, which has become a priority in the CEE region”