Logistics serves as the core link connecting the production and consumption ends. The process of its automation and intelligent upgrade directly determines the operational efficiency and resilience of the industrial and supply chains. Given the rapid iteration of robotics technology and continuous empowerment from industrial policies, the penetration of intelligent equipment such as industrial robots and mobile robots in the logistics sector has been steadily deepening, profoundly reshaping the development landscape of China's logistics industry.
Recently, MIR officially released the "2025 China Logistics Industry Robot Market Development Report". The report presents the current status of automation development, robot application scenarios, and market competition landscape in China's logistics industry. It provides an in-depth analysis of the core pain points and future development trends of the industry, offering objective market references for upstream and downstream enterprises in the logistics supply chain.
01. Logistics Automation Market Steadily Expands, Robots Become a Key Driver for Intelligent Upgrades
From an overall market perspective, the continuous development of downstream e-commerce, express delivery, and manufacturing sectors has directly driven long-term and steady growth in the investment scale of automation equipment in China's logistics industry. Data shows that the investment scale of automation equipment in China's logistics industry was 58.87 billion RMB in 2019, and has grown to 95.3 billion RMB in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.3%. It is projected that by 2028, the industry's investment scale will climb to 121.45 billion RMB.
As crucial equipment in logistics automation systems, logistics robots have achieved synchronous growth. Data indicates that the overall market size of robots in China's logistics industry exceeded 5,000 units in 2025.
(Data source: MIR "2025 China Logistics Industry Robot Market Development Report")
From the perspective of development history, starting in 2018, national policies related to intelligent manufacturing promoted the large-scale deployment of robots in manufacturing logistics scenarios. From 2020 to 2021, the demand for unmanned operations in the e-commerce and express delivery logistics industries surged, synchronizing with the peak of automation investment. Industrial robots began to be introduced in batches for mature scenarios such as palletizing and depalletizing, ushering in a period of rapid market growth. From 2022 to 2025, affected by the phased slowdown in automation investment in the e-commerce industry, the market growth rate saw a slight decline. In the future, as logistics automation investment continues to recover, coupled with breakthroughs in robot penetration across more scenarios, the logistics robot market will maintain its growth trajectory.
In terms of market competition landscape, foreign brands still dominate the market.
Among them, KUKA, ABB, and FANUC collectively hold over 50% of the market share in China's logistics robot market. Among domestic brands, Chinese enterprises represented by Estun have achieved rapid growth in market share in the manufacturing logistics sector, making breakthroughs in sub-sectors such as automotive components and lithium batteries.
From the perspective of overall application structure, the current application scenarios of logistics robots are highly matched with the automation level of logistics processes.
Palletizing and depalletizing are currently the most mature and highest-proportion application scenarios for logistics robots, with technical solutions and implementation models having undergone large-scale validation. With the continuous breakthroughs in 3D vision technology and AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology, the proportion of robot applications in the sorting process, where the automation level is rapidly improving, is continuously expanding, becoming a core source of market increment.
In terms of model structure, traditional palletizing and depalletizing scenarios primarily utilize four-axis dedicated palletizing robots. However, as the demand for flexibility and multi-category operations in logistics scenarios continues to rise, the proportion of six-axis robots has increased year by year. Complex scenarios such as mixed-box palletizing and unstructured sorting have widely adopted the "3D vision + six-axis robot" solution.
02. In-Depth Analysis of the Three Core Industries for Logistics Robots
China's logistics industry can be divided into three major sub-sectors: e-commerce logistics, express delivery logistics, and manufacturing logistics (warehousing part). These three core industries cover different logistics processes with significant differences in automation levels, leading to distinct demands and application scenarios for robots.
E-commerce Logistics
E-commerce logistics covers the entire chain of warehousing, sorting, and transportation, with a mature foundation for automation.
From the perspective of robot usage, e-commerce logistics robots are primarily used for palletizing and depalletizing scenarios during the inbound and outbound processes of parcels, followed by providing fast and precise intelligent sorting in conjunction with visual recognition technology.
In terms of model structure, palletizing dedicated robots and small six-axis robots dominate the palletizing, depalletizing, and object picking scenarios, accounting for the highest proportion. Parallel robots mainly handle small-item rapid picking scenarios, while collaborative robots are primarily responsible for handling tasks in smaller spaces.
Future development trends: After 2023, as the construction of large-scale automated storage and retrieval systems approached saturation, the logistics automation investment of leading e-commerce enterprises slowed down in phases, causing a slight decline in the growth rate of the robot market. In 2025, leading e-commerce platforms headed by JD.com announced plans to increase warehouse automation upgrades in the future. Amazon established a global intelligent hub warehouse in Shenzhen, while second-tier players such as Vipshop, Suning, and Dewu simultaneously scaled up their self-built warehousing capacity and automation levels. Coupled with the rapid maturation of technologies such as AI and embodied intelligence, the e-commerce logistics robot market will return to growth.
Express Delivery Logistics
Express delivery logistics is highly correlated with the e-commerce industry, focusing primarily on sorting and transportation processes. The automation scenarios are relatively single, and the maturity of individual equipment types is high. The robot application scenarios are fewer compared to e-commerce logistics, resulting in a relatively smaller market scale.
From the perspective of robot usage, express delivery logistics robots are mainly applied in palletizing and depalletizing scenarios. Large sorting centers need to process hundreds of thousands of express parcels daily, and robots have begun to be used in some flexible sorting scenarios. It is expected that with the continuous iteration and optimization of robot solutions, the penetration rate will continue to rise.
In terms of model structure, six-axis industrial robots, parallel robots, and collaborative robots have more advantages in express parcel sorting, and their model proportion is relatively higher than that in e-commerce logistics.
Future development trends: The development pace of the express delivery logistics robot market is similar to that of e-commerce logistics. In 2023, the decline in investment enthusiasm coupled with a sluggish consumer market further slowed down the market growth rate. In the future, with the rapid maturation of technologies such as AI and embodied intelligence, robots will accelerate their penetration in scenarios such as unstructured sorting and palletizing/depalletizing. Coupled with the increase in sorting center construction driven by the growth of logistics demand in the northwest region, and mainstream enterprises such as SF Express, ZTO, YTO, STO, and Yunda continuously increasing their investment in the intelligent upgrade of sorting centers, the market scale of express delivery logistics robots will achieve growth.
Manufacturing Logistics (Warehousing Part)
Manufacturing logistics (warehousing part) mainly focuses on warehousing and sorting processes. The automation level in these two processes is relatively low, and the penetration rate of automation equipment still has significant room for improvement. It is the absolute main force in logistics automation investment and currently the largest application market for logistics robots. Data shows that in 2025, the market size of robots in China's manufacturing logistics (warehousing part) reached 3,400 units, accounting for over 67% of the total logistics industry market volume.
From the perspective of robot usage, the application scenarios of manufacturing logistics robots are mainly concentrated in palletizing and depalletizing in finished product warehouses, line-side warehouses, and raw material warehouses, as well as handling and packaging at the end of the production line, and loading/unloading vehicles during outbound operations.
In terms of model structure, in industries with a wide variety of materials and products such as automotive and metal products, scenarios like palletizing, depalletizing, and sorting have high requirements for vision, leading to a gradual increase in the demand for six-axis robots. As the customization attributes of small-batch and multi-batch production in manufacturing strengthen year by year, the proportion of the "six-axis robot + vision" combination will continue to expand. Additionally, the robot penetration rate in vehicle loading and unloading scenarios is also gradually increasing and will remain highly popular in the next 3-5 years. Among them, four-axis dedicated palletizing robots are mostly used for loading and unloading high-rail trucks, while box trucks mostly use six-axis robots with a payload of 50-80kg.
Future development trends: The development of manufacturing logistics automation started relatively early. Since 2018, the government has promoted the large-scale deployment of robots in the manufacturing logistics industry, and the development pace has been significantly influenced by policies. In 2019, the market growth rate temporarily slowed down due to the impact of the pandemic. After the recovery in 2020, the concepts of low-contact and unmanned operations drove the rapid expansion of the manufacturing robot market. Driven by continuous policies such as "Intelligent Manufacturing in China", the growth rate continued to climb in 2021. In 2025, the automotive, lithium battery, and electronics industries experienced high prosperity, with many new projects from leading terminals in related industries. The rapid growth in automation investment directly boosted the market scale of manufacturing logistics robots. MIR forecasts that with the expansion of industry scale and policy support, the market will maintain steady growth in the future.
Conclusion
Currently, the investment in logistics automation equipment in China continues to expand, and logistics robots are ushering in a dual growth cycle of demand and technology.
In the future, six-axis robots with payloads of 20-35kg and 50-150kg will experience an explosion in demand in scenarios such as sorting and mixed palletizing/depalletizing. The integrated solution of "six-axis robot + 3D vision" will become the core technical path to solve complex scenarios such as mixed palletizing/depalletizing and unstructured sorting. Blue ocean applications such as robot vehicle loading and unloading will also gradually open up market space.
In the market competition landscape, the automation investment trends of leading e-commerce and express delivery manufacturers such as JD.com, SF Express, and Cainiao directly affect the procurement trends and technology iteration directions of industry equipment. In terms of manufacturing logistics, leading customers and supporting integrators in key industries such as lithium batteries, pharmaceuticals, and electronics are the key sources of demand release.
International leading brands such as FANUC and KUKA dominate with their advantages in technology and full product lines, while domestic brands are accelerating their breakthroughs in sub-sectors.
Final Words
MIR has been tracking the market dynamics of robots in the logistics industry for a long time and recently released the "2025 China Logistics Industry Robot Market Development Report". The report focuses on the development status and trends of the logistics industry, the development status and future trend analysis of the logistics industry robot market, and systematically sorts out and deeply analyzes key opportunity areas in the future. The full text consists of 59 pages, and the report directory is as follows.
If you need to obtain the report or further understand relevant information, please contact us through the contact information at the end of the article.
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