KIET: Korea leads the world in robot density at 1,066 but ranks last of six in robot-industry strength

Korea installs more manufacturing robots per worker than any country but its robot industry scored 72.9 out of 100 in an expert survey, last of six countries behind Japan (95.5), Germany (88.4), the US (80.6), Switzerland (79.5) and China (79.4), the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade (KIET) said in a report released on Oct 29, as reported by Yonhap; MEKAWIRE has not yet found the report on KIET's website.

KIET put Korea's robot density at 1,066 per 10,000 manufacturing workers, its new robot sales fourth in the world, procurement its weakest link at 64.0 points, and found that 97.9% of 2,509 Korean robot companies are SMEs and only 3.2% have robot revenue above KRW 10bn.

It recommends self-reliance in actuators, robot hands and sensors, among five tasks. MEKAWIRE context: the density figure differs from the 1,220 the IFR published for Korea in June, a gap that likely reflects different years or worker bases and that neither source reconciles; China, which KIET says overtook Korea in 2023, took 58.7% of the 603,307 robots sold worldwide last year.