According to a new report by Occams Business Research & Consulting, the automated material-handling market is growing by around 8% a year due to increasing demand from the automotive and electrical manufacturing sectors. “Industrial robots in these two sectors are high compared to other industries,” the report says.

It refers to International Federation of Robotics figures showing that around 60,000 industrial robots were sold in China in 2015, and that the demand for industrial robots in China is worth around $3 billion this year.

“Looking at the overall global market, around 240,000 industrial robots were sold in 2015, representing a 25% increase from 2014. As robots become more technologically advanced, demand in the material-handling sector is increasing.

ABB introduced a dual-arm collaborative small-parts assembly robotic system named YuMi in 2015, while Kuka also produced a sensitive collaborative industrial robot. Other companies, including Universal Robotics, are innovating new technology for automated material handling.”

The report concludes: “It is expected that investment in all types of automation will rise to around $190 billion by 2025, up from around $10 billion in 2015.”