BEIJING — China's industrial robot production surged 19.1 percent year-on-year in 2020, official data showed.

The growing output indicates the improvement of market heat and the acceleration of intelligent upgrading of the enterprises, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

Last year, the operating income of industrial robot manufacturing enterprises above the designated size registered a year-on-year increase of 6 percent, data from the MIIT showed.

The market of service robots performed well, with the operating income of relative enterprises above designated size reaching 10.31 billion yuan (about $1.6 billion), up 31.3 percent year-on-year in 2020.

China strives to upgrade its labor-intensive manufacturing sector through technological innovation as it faces a shrinking working-age population and increasing labor costs.

The country released a guideline in 2016 with a goal of tripling annual production of industrial robots to 100,000 by 2020.