North American companies ordered 10,989 industrial robots in the third quarter, up 24.8% year on year. Orders for collaborative robots rose 56%, while the automotive and electronics sectors supported demand.
According to data from the Association for Advancing Automation (A3), published on the 28th, industrial robot orders were worth $723.5 million in the third quarter, up 26.1% year on year. It was the strongest quarter since the start of the year. The growth spans several industrial sectors, with particularly sharp increases among automotive suppliers and electronic component manufacturers.
Auto parts makers raise robot orders by 90.4%
Auto parts manufacturers were among the main drivers of this recovery. According to A3, their industrial robot orders rose 90.4% in the third quarter compared with the same period a year earlier.
Vehicle manufacturers also returned to quarterly growth, with orders up 7.5%. Their overall picture remains mixed, however: over the first nine months of the year, their cumulative orders were still 17% below the same period of the previous year.
Semiconductor and electronics robot orders up 97.6%
The largest increase among the sectors cited was in semiconductors, electronics and photonics. Their robot orders rose 97.6% year on year in the third quarter, according to A3.
This growth comes alongside investment in semiconductor manufacturing in the United States and demand for electronic products, particularly those linked to artificial intelligence.
Other industrial sectors also recorded higher orders over the same period:
- Plastics and rubber: +67.7%.
- Life sciences, pharmaceuticals and biomedical: +38.7%.
- Metals: +37%.
For Alex Shikany, vice president of A3, the key feature of this trend is that it extends across several branches of industry, beyond the automotive sector alone.
Cobots make up 16.7% of quarterly robot orders
The collaborative robot segment, also known as cobots, is accelerating. According to A3, 1,831 cobots were ordered in the third quarter in North America, with a total value of $63.8 million.
Order volume rose by about 56% year on year. Collaborative robots thus accounted for 16.7% of all industrial robots ordered during the quarter.
Over the first nine months of the year, A3 counted 4,605 collaborative robots ordered, worth about $178 million. They represented 15.9% of units ordered and 9.4% of the total value of industrial robot orders over that period.
Their share varies considerably by sector. Between January and September, cobots accounted for 43.8% of robot orders in life sciences, pharmaceuticals and biomedical. The proportion reached 36.9% in semiconductors, electronics and photonics.
North America: 28,984 robots ordered in nine months
In total, North American companies ordered 28,984 industrial robots between January and September, according to A3, worth about $1.89 billion.
Compared with the first nine months of the previous year, the number of robots ordered rose 9.6%, while their value increased 13.3%. These figures cover orders placed with robot suppliers, not installations completed in factories.
Manufacturing recovery tracks the rise in robot orders
A3 links this trend to the improvement in US manufacturing activity. In September, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) manufacturing PMI stood at 54.5, marking a ninth consecutive month of expansion in economic activity.
US Federal Reserve data also show a 0.3% increase in manufacturing output in September compared with the previous month.