Global material handling robotics market to exceed $20 billion by 2019

According to the latest market research study released by Technavio, the global material handling robotics market is expected to exceed $20 billion by 2019, growing at a CAGR of more than 8% during the forecast period.

The report segments the global material handling robotics market by end-user and can be divided into five broad categories: automotive, chemical, industrial machinery, food and beverage, and electrical and electronics.

Global material handling robotics market in automotive industry
The material handling robotics market in the automotive industry is expected to exceed $6 billion by 2019, growing at a CAGR of almost 9%.

The automotive industry has shifted to using robots for handling processes as they involve bulk payloads that cannot be effectively moved by manual labor. For example, large chassis of buses and trucks cannot be moved or packed manually and require robots to do these jobs.

Global material handling robotics market in chemical industry
The material handling robotics market in the chemical industry is expected to exceed $3.4 billion by 2019, growing at a CAGR of almost 9%.

Since the chemical industry involves the handling of hazardous materials like radioactive substances and working in dangerous environments that may harm or lead to casualties, it has slowly shifted toward robots to ensure labor safety. The need for reducing the exposure to explosive dust should also act as a major driver for the market from the chemical industry.

According to Bharath Kanniappan, lead analyst at Technavio for robotics research, “China controls nearly half of the world’s chemical and petrochemical market, followed by Europe. Hence, most of the demand for robots for the chemical and petrochemical industry should come from these two regions.”

Global material handling robotics market in electrical and electronics industry
The material handling robotics market in the electrical and electronics industry is expected to exceed $2.5 billion by 2019, growing at a CAGR of more than 8%.

Since miniaturization is an evolving trend in the electrical and electronics industry, there is an increased need for maintaining high throughput and quality, in addition to reduction of handling time. Moreover, as the parts produced in the electrical and electronics industry are more fragile and difficult to grip, robot manufacturers like Fanuc have come up with vision-guided intelligent robots specifically designed for this industry.

Global material handling robotics market in industrial machinery industry
The material handling robotics market in the industrial machinery is expected to exceed $1 billion by 2019, growing at a CAGR of more than 6%.

As in the automotive industry, this industry also requires the use of robots for carrying and placing heavy payloads within the shop floor area. The continuous functioning of factories creates work fatigue in employees leading to increased errors and less productivity. This has led to the increased use of robots for all production purposes including material handling to reduce worker fatigue, accidents, and costs. Also, robots need not be fixed at a particular place, offering the industry more operational flexibility, and this could be a major driver for the market in this industry.

Global material handling robotics market in food and beverage industry
The material handling robotics market in the food and beverage industry is expected to exceed $1 billion by 2019, growing at a CAGR of almost 11%.

“The need for preventing contamination during food processing and packaging is the main driver for the market,” says Bharath. Stringent regulations will result in food and beverage industries going for more automation, and this will have a positive impact on the market. Since the food and beverage industry involves handling and packaging many kinds of stock-keeping units (SKU) within a short span of time, it is increasingly adopting robots to improve efficiency in material handling.

Technavio industrial automation research analysts highlight the following five vendors as the top contributors to the global material handling robotics market:

ABB
FANUC
Kuka
Kawasaki Robotics
Yaskawa Electric