2023 has come to an end, and this year, we have witnessed the continuous development of mobile robot industry technology, the expansion of more emerging application fields, the collective expansion of Chinese enterprises, and the influence of global ......However, it is also facing various uncertainties such as the global economic downturn and cyclical changes in downstream sub-industries.
In order to better understand the development of the mobile robot industry in 2023 and the company's "mental journey" in this year, the editorial department of the new strategic mobile robot specially invites the founders and executives of the company on behalf of the industry to share with us the growth, harvest and perception of the industry in 2023.
Mainly around the question:
How does the company's overall business compare with last year, and has the strategic goals set by the company at the beginning of the year been achieved? What are the main aspects of the company's biggest breakthrough in 2023?
What are the main factors that affect the changes in the company's business year? What are the biggest challenges companies face in the market competition? How are these challenges being addressed?
3. Views on the overall development of mobile robots in 2023.
This time, a total of 30+ CEOs' annual thoughts and summaries have been collected, and the following is the first batch of CEOs to share the content, and we will release the follow-up content one after another, so stay tuned!
Zheng Yong, founder & CEO of Jizhijia
The biggest break of 2023:A number of Geekplus' star products, such as the shelf-to-person poppick solution, the box-to-person Roboshuttle solution, and the upper and lower storage and picking solutions, have been implemented on a large scale around the world, further consolidating the advantages of Geekplus as a full-category warehousing and logistics robot enterprise and providing customers with overall robot solutions. Biggest Challenges in 2023:How to continuously improve delivery efficiency and create better services.
Since 2023, despite the great changes in the domestic and foreign economic situation, the mobile robot market has maintained a strong development momentum. Many companies have set their sights on overseas markets and accelerated the pace of going overseas, which marks that China's mobile robot industry has entered a new strategic stage.
At the same time, with the changes in the economic environment and capital markets, the industry reshuffle continues. Therefore, enterprises pay more attention to enhancing their competitiveness through differentiated development, so as to gain a more stable position in the market competition.
Wang Yupeng, President of SIASUN Mobile Robot BG
SIASUN Mobile Robot in 2023The overall business order growth of about 20% and revenue increased by more than 30%.The strategic goals for the whole year have been basically completed.
Affected by the cyclical nature of key industries, SIASUN will slow down in 2023 in the domestic new energy vehicle and power battery industries, but it will continue to maintain high growth in advantageous areas such as photovoltaics, energy storage batteries, and outdoor heavy loads, and several cost-effective products will receive a large number of orders, providing impetus for SIASUN's business growth. In addition, SIASUN's overseas orders will grow rapidly in 2023, and the overseas layout has been basically completed, which will provide strong support for overseas business expansion to a certain extent.
In 2023, SIASUN Mobile Robot's biggest breakthrough in business and technology is low-speed unmanned delivery in outdoor parksCombined with SIASUN's latest 3D laser SLAM technology, it realizes the landing of key industries and leading customer scenarios, and dispatches more than 100 laser forklifts through artificial intelligence technology to complete platform docking and loading, and the identification of hundreds of pallet ends of different specifications, which plays a key role in SIASUN's next step in the layout of outdoor heavy-duty low-speed unmanned distribution.
In 2023, the market demand for mobile robots will be characterized by the shift from the incremental market to the stock market, and new technologies and new applications will not change much compared with previous years.
First of all, 2023 is a key turning point for mobile robots to return to rationalityThe return of rationality stems from the fact that capital has begun to be rational, and capital pays more attention to sustainability and profitability, and the actual financing environment of enterprises will become worse and worse, resulting in the survival of some enterprises.
Secondly, there are more and more enterprises eager for quick success and quick profits, and there are more and more unfinished projectsIn particular, the return after the low price occupies the market is far from meeting expectations, which is very harmful to customers and the entire mobile robot industry. In the future, the industry will develop to the point where customers begin to draw a circle for the first business, and customers pay more attention to the brand, the company's durability and whether the service can be continued, which is a necessary stage for the industry to normalize, and will end the deformed cognition that technology, services and brands are worthless in the face of ** in recent years.
Again, the market will let those professional companies do professional thingsThe division of labor and specialization of enterprises has strengthened, and cooperation between enterprises has become important.
Finally, in 2023, the development of mobile robot technology will be extended from indoor to outdoorWith the advancement of AI technology, the demand for scenarios will increase, providing a solid foundation for making great strides into larger application scenarios in the field of people's livelihood in the future.
David Lee, Founder & CEO of Farlander
In 2023,The company's overall business has achieved a year-on-year growth of about 20%.With the core of the company, it has grown its business in many industries such as lithium battery industry and construction machinery industry.
In 2023, changes in the market environment are the main factors affecting the company, and under the influence of various policies and markets, the new energy vehicle industry has begun to reform while maintaining rapid development. At the same time, the company maintains healthy internal development, pays attention to the quality of operation, and continuously improves the delivery capacity, which are also some of the considerations for the company's business adjustment.
In 2023, the company has achieved a great breakthrough in product research and developmentCombined with the in-depth experience accumulation in the automotive industry, the whole team has developed a number of standard mobile robot products for the world. At the same time, in the process of standard product development, we have continuously improved the modular products accumulated in the past, which has further laid a solid foundation for the application of our products to other industrial scenarios.
The biggest challenge facing the company in the market this year should be some malicious competition caused by the involution of the industryIn this regard, we have always adhered to the attitude of rational competition, focusing on improving product value and service quality. We also call on everyone to calm down together, jointly promote the healthy development of the industry, enhance the image of the industry as a whole, and avoid users losing confidence in the entire mobile robot industry.
In 2023, the entire mobile robot industry has maintained a high growth rate and is expected to achieve a year-on-year growth of nearly 20%. The prospects of the mobile robot industry are still widely optimistic, and users' awareness and acceptance of mobile robots are constantly improving. In 2023, the competition in the mobile robot industry will intensify, and at the same time, affected by the overall environment, the capital ** will decline significantly compared with the past, which will put forward a greater test to the company's operating ability. Looking at the entire industry, in the current competitive environment, enterprises that can still achieve development, either have unique products, or focus on a certain industry, or have strong large enterprises. For the whole industry, we need to remain rational in the competition and work together to build a better industry.
Deputy General Manager of Jike Co., Ltd. Gong Jianning
In the first half of 2023, the main business income of Jike Co., Ltd. increased steadily compared with the same period last yearand was officially listed on the Beijing ** Stock Exchange on November 30, entering a new milestone of development. Machinery Co., Ltd. has long been committed to national scientific and technological innovation and industrial upgrading, serving the core areas of the national economy, and its main products have achieved the landing application of "flowers everywhere" in various key areas of the manufacturing industry, and has developed into a national high-tech enterprise, a national technological innovation demonstration enterprise, a national "science and technology reform demonstration action" enterprise and a national specialized, special and new key "little giant" enterprise.
Looking forward to the future, Jike will closely focus on the strategic guiding ideology of "credit enhancement and empowerment, innovation and transcendence", continue to deepen market reform and enhance the "two-wheel drive" of innovation capabilities, and comprehensively create a new situation of high-quality development of intelligent equipment manufacturing. Jike will take the opportunity of entering the capital market to accelerate the construction of a world-class innovative enterprise, strive to build a new development pattern, and boost the high-quality development of the economy!
In 2023, the overall development of mobile robots is good, and with the continuous recovery of the economy, the market is in a state of continuous growth. As the customer's demand for mobile robots grows, higher requirements are put forward for products, and products with higher cost performance and better practicability are required. Jike Co., Ltd. will adhere to the "customer-centric", provide customers with overall solutions for intelligent manufacturing, empower customers' technology improvement, and create value for customers.
Liu Jingtao, President of Hai Robotics China
In the first half of 2023, HAI ROBOTICS' order book increased by 60% year-on-yearFor the full year, order intake and earnings growth are also expected to be in line with our expectations. We think the results are quite satisfactory. An important shift in HAI ROBOTICS' innovation this year lies in the transformation from focusing on the R&D and innovation of box storage robots to providing customers in various industries with standardized system product-level solutions with ACR as the core. In the future, HAI ROBOTICS will be committed to building a number of world-leading hardware product lines and software platforms.
This year, Hai Robotics continued to achieve breakthroughs in the automotive industry and the 3C manufacturing industry. In the automotive industry, we have successively served SAIC-GM-Wuling, Geely Automobile Group's Lynk & Co, Zeekr, etc. In the manufacturing industry, we have served customers such as Midea, Panasonic, Omnivision Semiconductor, TPV Technology, Mulinsen and so on.
As of now,Hai Robotics already has 300+ ecological partners. In the future, Hai Robotics will further expand its ecosystem partners, and support and empower partners in terms of product training, delivery training, project implementation, etc., so that more partners can enjoy incentives and growth.
While rapidly expanding the market, we are also increasing our own production capacity. HAI ROBOTICS' second largest smart manufacturing base opened in Wuxi in August 2023, bringing the overall annual production capacity of our ** chain to 20,000 units. In the face of the rapidly growing global market demand, with the support of Wuxi Intelligent Manufacturing Base, Hai Robotics will be more confident to meet challenges and serve customers in various industries.
Qian Jun, general manager of Hangcha Intelligence
In 2023, the mobile robot industry will develop rapidly, with continuous technological innovation and continuous expansion of application scenariosThe overall business of Hangcha Intelligence has increased by more than 100% compared with last year, basically achieved the strategic goals set by the company at the beginning of the year.
I think the main factors that affect the changes in the company's business:The first is market demandThe rapid development of industrial automation has created a need to improve production efficiency and optimize logistics processes, which has pushed our company to expand into new business - integration projectsThe second is technological innovationThe key technologies of mobile robots, such as positioning and navigation, intelligent perception, and autonomous decision-making, will continue to improve, and promote the expansion of the performance and application scope of mobile robots.
The biggest breakthrough achieved by Hangcha Intelligence in 2023 is that it is no longer limited to a single A** product, but undertakes integrated projects such as intelligent logistics equipment such as vertical warehouses and conveyor lines, which can create a full-process intelligent logistics solution for customers.
This year the company is in the market competitionThe biggest challenge was the customer's customization needs.
In 2023, I think the overall development trend of mobile robots is still good, and the overall development trend will be even moreIntelligent, diversified, modular, and secure。First, the core technology level of mobile robots will continue to improve and improve the degree of intelligence. Second, more application scenarios will be developed in the future, involving more fields. Third, future mobile robots will pay more attention to functional modularity, which can be flexibly combined according to different application scenarios to meet different needs. Fourth, future mobile robots will be equipped with more complete safety sensors and systems to ensure the safety of robot operation.
CEO Zhang Zhaohui of Youai Zhihe
In 2023, under the circumstance of great uncertainty in the external environment, Youai Zhihe will continue to cultivate in the main channel, with steady growth in the fields of industrial logistics semiconductors and lithium batteries, and panoramic coverage of power generation, power grid, coal and petrochemical fields in the inspection and operation and maintenance business segmentOverall, it doubled its growth from last year.
In 2023, in the context of the contradiction between the cycle changes on the demand side and the rapid growth of enterprises, the overall expectations of the industry will decline, and the market competition in some fields will become white-hot. In this environment,On the one hand, the company remains focused, constantly consolidate product strength and competitiveness, and establish core advantage barriersOn the other hand, it can be flexibly adjusted according to market changesto break through in the ever-changing market landscape. Through continuous focus, we will stabilize the main position and obtain "quality development" under uncertainty.
In 2023, although there are cyclical changes in the demand side of the industry, we can still see that the penetration rate of mobile robots in various fields continues to increase, and at the same time, mobile robots have also opened up a new situation in overseas markets.
Chen Xian, CEO of Jiazhi Technology
The company's overall business in 2023 is generally better than last yearA year-on-year increase of about 40%.The strategic objectives set at the beginning of the year have been achieved. The main factor influencing the change of the company's business is always oursProduct strength and delivery power。In 2023, Jiazhi will further improve two product lines in terms of products, EMMA series standard mobile robot platform and FOLA series unmanned forklifts, and at the same time launch industry solutions for subdivided industries. In terms of delivery, we go deep into customer scenarios, put forward professional solutions and suggestions, help customers solve practical problems, and truly achieve 100% project delivery.
In 2023, the biggest breakthrough of Jiazhi is to refine the domestic market and explore overseas markets. The biggest challenge facing the company this year is how to achieve "localization" in the process of going overseas to meet the market demand in different countries or regions. It is important to adapt to different laws and regulations and to have a deep understanding of the differences in the application environment. In my opinion, the first is to make long-term planning, do a good job in talent building, pay attention to cross-cultural competence training, and create a global company culture; The second is to unite Chinese counterparts to jointly build the reputation of China's first-class enterprises to go overseas and lower the entry threshold for different markets.
In 2023, the overall competition in the mobile robot industry will intensify, and the industry as a whole will have a certain cyclical investment cycle with the manufacturing industry, with the economic recovery in the first half of the year, it will show gratifying growth in hot industries, but in the second half of the year, the overall pace of the domestic market will slow down, and customers' investment will become more cautious; The overseas market is the new growth point of mobile robots this year, and at the market level, it can also be found that many domestic friends have met overseas and organized groups to go to sea.
Gao Yong, CEO of Blue Chip Technology
In 2023, the overall performance of Blue Chip Technology will increase by 75% compared with 2022, and the target set at the beginning of the year will be successfully achieved.
In 2023, photovoltaics and batteries will become the most significant growth points of Blue Chip Technology, with a performance contribution of nearly 60%. The main factors of business changes are analyzed: first, green and low-carbon has become a global strategic goal in recent years, and the domestic photovoltaic and battery industries have developed rapidly; Second, the global economy is in a downturn, and the contraction of C-end consumption has led to a slowdown in the development of the 3C industry; Third, Blue Chip Technology will adhere to the "Four Industries Focus Strategy" from 2022, and its excellent products and services have won wide recognition from customers in the photovoltaic and battery industries.
The company's development is on the surfaceThe first is a technological breakthrough. In 2023, Bluechip Technology officially released its first pure vision product (SMT loading and unloading robot), which is also the world's first pure vision mobile robot product. The second is a breakthrough in the development of enterprises. In the case of a startup, reaching 100 million is the first phase goal, and 300 million is the second stage goal. In 2021, Blue Chip Technology achieved the first goal, and this year we crossed the second goal.
The market challenges faced in 2023 are mainly the involution battle characterized by low prices. This unhealthy way of competition will destroy the entire industrial ecology. Is it to go with the flow, ship quickly, and increase market share? Or stick to the bottom line, withstand the risk of market erosion, and seek healthy and steady development? This is a problem that every business needs to face head-on.
In 2023, the reshuffle of China's mobile robot industry is intensifying, and the gap between mobile robot companies is widening under the comprehensive game of multiple factors such as capital, technology, products, and delivery. Coupled with the cyclical downturn of the global economy, investment and consumption have become cautious, and some small enterprises that lack the ability to "make blood" on their own have begun to fade out of the market. -- The "Matthew effect" in the mobile robot industry is accelerating. Zhao Yue, CEO of SEER
This year, the company's overall business increased by 50% compared with last year, and the strategic goals set at the beginning of the year were basically achieved. The main factor affecting the external economy is the downturn, which has an impact on the company's orders in the first half of the year, but it has reversed since May and has been improving, and the comprehensive impact on the whole year is not large.
Although the entire economy has a downward trend throughout the year, SEER is still growing against the trendThe main reason is also the excellent productSEER's mobile robot controller is generally recognized by the market, with the improvement of high, medium and low series models, SEER SRC controller can meet the needs of different robot types in different scenarios, the market penetration rate is getting higher and higher, and maintain the industry position of the first market share.
On the one hand, it quickly set up a team to improve foreign language product information and online, and on the other hand, it launched the "Overseas Partner Program" to cooperate with local integrators, and has established cooperative relations with integrator partners in more than 50 countries.
With the passage of time, we found that the mobile robot market is a discrete non-standard product-based market, although the proportion of standard products in the past seems to be a lot, that is because the penetration rate is still very low, with the development of the industry, we have to face a lot of non-standard customization needs, then, who can deliver a variety of non-standard robots quickly, well and at low cost? Integrators are an indispensable and very important role in the mobile robot industry, and SEER is willing to be a strong backing for integrators, and continue to support the development needs of integrators with leading technology and easy-to-use products.
Xiang Weifeng, chairman of Yufeng Intelligence
In the early stage, the overall economic environment was not good due to the impact of the epidemic and other factors, but the market environment in 2023 has improved significantly, and our company's business has also improvedYufeng increased by about 45% over the same periodThe strategic goals set at the beginning of the year have been basically achieved.
The main factors affecting the company's business in 2023 are: first, we continue to expand and improve the upstream first-chain system; Second, we will focus more on industry segments, focusing on new energy and food cold chain and other sub-industries, and continuously improve our market share and performance proportion.
In 2023, our company's biggest breakthrough is mainly to continue to increase R&D investment and continuous innovation of products and technologies, so that Yufeng in the increasingly fierce market competition environment, can still maintain a greater leap forward development. The biggest challenge in 2024 is the need to continuously improve the balance of supply and demand in the upstream chain and improve the company's overall operation and management system. In the face of challenges, Yufeng will continue to adhere to the operation model of scientific and technological innovation and intelligent overall solution integration of software and hardware to ensure that the company can achieve sustainable and rapid growth in the changing market environment.
Luo Huacheng, deputy general manager of Beijing Special Machinery Research Institute
In 2023, Beijing Special Machinery Research Institute will implement the development strategy from stand-alone to system, from low-speed to medium-high speed, and from indoor to outdoor in the field of intelligent heavy-duty A**Operating income, new contracts and profit increased by more than 15%.Fully complete the annual target. It has formed a benign development trend of steady improvement in quality and sales, continuous enhancement of customer satisfaction, and gradual expansion of scale.
In 2023, in the face of increasingly fierce market competition, Beijing Special Machinery Research Institute will focus on technology research and development, market development, quality improvement and cost engineering, and continue to respond to market challenges with excellent quality, good service and reasonable performanceIt has realized the implementation of system-level projects such as large-scale intelligent production lines and outdoor high-speed clustersFurther enhance the influence of our firm in the industry.
In recent years, mobile robots have developed by leaps and bounds. In the favorable environment of the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain to expand production, accelerate the upgrading of equipment manufacturing, and the deep integration of manufacturing and logistics industry, Beijing Special Machinery Research Institute will use the brand influence and technology accumulation established over the years to seize the opportunity to quickly achieve product upgrading and industrial capacity improvement.
Qin Ye, executive vice president of Huaxiao Precision
In 2023, the company's development will be steadily advanced according to the strategy, and the overall business will be basically the same as in 2022, especially the project acceptanceThe cumulative acceptance amount in the two years from 2022 to 2023 has broken through a record high. In terms of the market, the large transportation industry, which is dominated by automobiles and auto parts, continues to be deeply cultivated; At the same time, we will carry out orderly development around the new energy industryThe overall number of newly signed projects is expected to be nearly 200. In terms of delivery, we continue to take agile delivery as the first guiding principleA total of more than 180 projects have been delivered.
The exploration of orders, the requirements for profits, and the selection of customers are still the market strategic direction we will adhere to in the future.
The key word for 2023 is "resilience."We have completed the internal "training": first, the team structure is flattened, the redundancy of personnel is reduced to the greatest extent, and 40% of the personnel efficiency is improved and transformed; The second is to R&D technology-driven, self-developed MIP, RCS and other software system upgrades, and promote the overall solution of "main line + logistics + A** + multi-wheel drive digital factory".
In 2023, market opportunities continue to emerge, but challenges also follow, especially low-price competition, which hinders the healthy development of the industry as a whole. CSG Huaxiao firmly chooses strategy, first of all, insists on customer screening and focus, grows together with customers, and promotes the common development of the industry; Secondly, the improvement of technical capabilities, technology and products are the basis of scenario application; Third, the change of program capabilities, combined with the changes in the customer's production process, to create a more suitable solution; Fourth, we will continue to consolidate our service capabilities, deliver projects in an agile manner, and respond to customer needs in a timely manner. Finally, the construction of the first chain capacity does not rely too much on a few imported brands to promote the "standardization" of non-standard customization. Responding to market changes and challenges is not a single link, but a holistic thinking.
The mobile robot market in 2023 has pulled a year's "tent" in the expectation at the beginning of the year, the stunned in the middle of the year, and then the disappointment later. In this year, all companies have experienced difficulties, volumes, tiredness and suffering, and we may be pessimistic in our subjective feelings; But objective data and results, we should also be more optimistic, the demand must exist, we have to think about whether the ability of mobile robots can meet the needs, today's mobile robots may be ridiculed but at the same time envied, in fact, this is not a contradiction,In 2024 and even in the future, the market we are facing will still have steady growth, and we must use a more optimistic attitude to meet the future of "more volume".