BEIJING — China is the world's largest market for the industrial robot industry, which is known as "the crown jewel of manufacturing," with its production reaching about 366,000 units in 2021.

The industrial robot application covers 60 industrial categories of the national economy. In 2021, the density of manufacturing robots exceeded 300 units per 10,000 people, about 13 times more than in 2012, data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) showed recently.

Service robots are widely used in fields such as catering, education, medical care and logistics. At the just-concluded 2022 China International Fair for Trade in Services, Chinese online food delivery platform Meituan demonstrated its automated delivery vehicles and drones.

Currently, there are over 439,000 service robot-related enterprises in China, among which more than 79,000 were newly registered from January to August this year, according to the corporate information provider Tianyancha.

The technological level of China's robot industry has also been further improved, said the MIIT official Guo Shougang, adding that progress had been made in the research and development of core components including precision speed reducers, intelligent controllers and real-time operating systems.

A decade of transformation in the robot industry is the epitome of China's advanced equipment manufacturing industry.

The equipment manufacturing industry has made historic achievements and transformations, said Wang Weiming, an official with the MIIT, adding that from 2012 to 2021, the added value of the equipment industry grew at an average rate of 8.2 percent annually, maintaining a medium-high speed.

Recently, overcoming the impact of the epidemic, chip shortages, rising raw material prices, and tight energy security, the industry generally operated smoothly, benefiting from measures aimed at ensuring stability in investment and operations of business entities, as well as measures designed to promote consumption, Wang said.

China's shipbuilding industry, an important component of equipment manufacturing, has established a complete industrial system that integrates research and development, design, construction and service, which has strongly supported international shipping, foreign trade, and rapid development of the marine economy.

China is leading the world on three major indicators of the shipbuilding industry, and its international market share has ranked first in the world for 12 consecutive years, according to the MIIT.

New energy vehicles are the main direction of transformation and upgrading of the global automobile industry, as well as for China. From January to July this year, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in the country reached 3.279 million units and 3.194 million units, respectively, ranking first in the world for seven consecutive years.

In recent years, the country accelerated the digital transformation pace of the equipment manufacturing industry. The 14th Five-Year Digital Economy Development Plan issued by the State Council clearly proposed the vigorous promotion of the digitalization of equipment in an all-around, wide-ranging and multilevel manner.

The ministry will spare no efforts to strengthen weak spots, make breakthroughs in core technologies of equipment digitalization, develop intelligent equipment, strengthen the promotion of application scenarios, and improve the industrial development environment.