(Yicai Global) Oct. 17 -- China’s industrial robot makers are benefiting from a big surge in orders from new energy vehicle manufacturers as factories get more automated, and the size of the market should only continue to grow, Securities Times reported today, citing market insiders.

The automotive sector has become a major application scenario for industrial robots, according to a report by Huaxi Securities. Sales of new energy vehicles are booming, fueling demand for automation.

In the past week, several Chinese industrial robot makers have scored lucrative new deals. MH Robot & Automation has won the bidding to supply three projects run by electric car giant BYD, the Weifang, eastern Shandong province-based company said on Oct. 13. The project is worth CNY490 million (USD68.1 million), more than half of its business revenue last year.

Autorobot, a unit of Efort Intelligent Equipment, will be supplying equipment to Fiat Chrysler Automobile’s Melfi Assembly Plant in Italy that makes pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, the firm said on Oct. 11. The contract is worth CNY254 million (USD35.3 million), nearly a quarter of Wuhu, eastern Anhui province-based Efort’s revenue last year.

And a subsidiary of Sinomach Automobile has also won the bidding to supply welding devices to Chery Automobile at a price of CNY120 million (USD16.6 million), the firm said on Oct. 10.

Industrial robots are in big demand in the automobile as well as the computers, communications and consumer electronics sectors, market insiders said. And in the future, they will also start to be used more and more in the chemical products and petroleum fields.

It would seem that the only way is up. Zhejiang Shuanghuan Driveline is expecting net profit to surge by as much as 81.4 percent in the first three quarters from a year earlier to CNY411 million (USD57.1 million), the robot maker said on Oct. 11.

China has been the world’s biggest market for industrial robots for a number of years. Sales are predicted to reach USD8.7 billion this year and to top USD11 billion by 2024, according to the International Federation of Robotics.

The country's robotics sector generated revenue of over CNY130 billion (USD18.1 billion) last year, with an output of 366,000 robots, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. This is 10 times the number produced in 2015.

Editor: Kim Taylor