ANN ARBOR, MI—North American robot orders in the first quarter of 2021 were up 20 percent over the same period in 2020, according to industry statistics recently released by the Association for Advancing Automation (A3). North American companies purchased 9,098 units valued at $466 million during this time, with non-automotive companies purchasing 28 percent more robots over Q1 2020, and automotive OEMs and component suppliers combined seeing a 12 percent increase year-over-year.
The strong Q1 for robot orders was the second-best start to any year on record (2017) and the second-best quarter on record for non-automotive orders, behind Q4 of 2020. Q4 2020 was also the second-best quarter ever for North America robot sales with a 64 percent increase over Q4 2019. In 2020 overall, for the first time, yearly orders of robots from non-automotive sectors surpassed automotive robot orders, as sales of robotic units in North America increased 4 percent in 2020 from 2019.