Robot maids on display at a robotics exhibition in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province on December 20 Photo: Li Qiaoyi/GT

A couple of robot maids wearing spacesuit-like clothing were gliding past stalls at a robotics exhibition in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province on December 20, instantly attracting visitors' attention.

Holding trays on their arms, the robot maids said "meals are being delivered, please move out of the way," whenever they sensed somebody standing in their way.

Such robots, which cost about 30,000 yuan ($4,879.65) each, have garnered a massive amount of interest, especially from restaurants, according to Wang Guofeng, general manager of Shanghai Jinghong Robot Co, which makes the robots.

The company already has orders that will take it until March 2015 to fulfill, said Wang.

The firm only started shipping the robot maids toward the end of 2014, with orders having reached over 100 in December so far, Wang told the Global Times on December 22.

As well as gaining more clients in China, Wang hopes to sell to foreign markets such as Malaysia, Singapore and the EU next year.

"My firm has put millions of yuan into research and development, and I believe we can start making a profit next year," he said.

Wang's company is one of many that are hoping to profit from China's fast-growing interest in robotics.

Rapid expansion

Shanghai Jinghong Robot Co was one of around 80 intelligent equipment manufacturers participating in the three-day International Robotics and Intelligent Equipment Industry Exhibition, which opened in Chengdu on December 20.

The majority of the participants were domestic firms.

The exhibition offered a view of China's growing humanoid robot industry, as well as a wide range of industrial robots shaped like mechanical arms, and industry watchers said domestic firms are well on course to increase their presence in the sector.

China is already the No.1 robotics market in terms of demand, and the country's own robotics industry is expected to see the fastest growth rate globally over the next 30 years, Luo Jun, executive chairman and secretary-general of the International Robotics and Intelligent Equipment Industry Alliance (IRIEA), told a news briefing in Chengdu on December 19, prior to a robotics and intelligent equipment industry conference that was part of the exhibition.

Figures released in June by the Germany-based International Federation of Robotics showed that China became the world's largest robot market in 2013, pushing Japan back into second place for the first time, with the US ranking third. China bought 36,560 industrial robots, or one in five sold worldwide, in 2013, the report said.

In an interview with the Global Times on December 20, Yu Dehai, chairman of Dalian Guangyang Science and Technology Group, one of the country's leading robot manufacturers, said the company's production capabilities are being stretched, due to a surge in orders.

The company has seen a twofold increase in orders in 2014 compared to the previous year, Yu said, adding that the firm plans to start building a new production base in Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning Province in early 2015.

The overall spending on the new production center, which will cover 460,000 square meters and is expected to be completed by 2016, will be 1.96 billion yuan, he told the Global Times.

Yu's company currently has four plants, with a combined area of 70,000 square meters.

To meet the rapidly growing demand, Wang of Shanghai Jinghong Robot Co said his company also plans to set up a new plant in Zhengzhou, Central China's Henan Province, next year.

Support needed

However, even though demand is rising fast in China, it has yet to translate into larger market share for domestic manufacturers.

Three core robot components - servo motors, controllers and speed reducers - are heavily reliant on imports, so domestic robot manufacturers' share of the country's market is currently less than 20 percent, according to Luo.

Some of the major global heavyweights in the robotics industry - such as Fanuc Corp and Yaskawa Electric Corp of Japan, Switzerland's ABB and Germany's KUKA AG - have become established players in the China market.

In an effort to boost the domestic robotics sector, supportive policies will be announced in 2015, Luo said.

The Ministry of Information and Industry Technology (MIIT) is expected to allocate 5 billion yuan in funds to assist the industry's development next year, while the Ministry of Science and Technology is likely to provide several billion yuan to support the incubation of robotics projects and research and development in the field, Luo disclosed at the news briefing.

The MIIT, the industry watchdog, is already mulling a blueprint for the country's robotics sector as part of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), Xinhua News Agency reported in November, citing Su Bo, vice minister of MIIT.

As well as the central government, local governments have launched various support measures.

Dongguan in South China's Guangdong Province, a manufacturing hub that has been plagued by a shortage of workers, has been active in helping the robotics industry. The city announced plans in August to create an annual 200 million yuan investment fund over the next three years ending 2016, to subsidize robotics investment by local enterprises.

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