Restoring American greatness on manufacturing will require robotics to meet job demands and compete with labor costs, and President Donald Trump is going to have to put that on his plate in his big agenda for rebalancing global trade and bringing production back to the United States.
That is because 70% of the world’s manufacturing robots are now produced overseas in Japan, China, Germany, and South Korea, according to the International Federation of Robotics.
“This is how you compete today,” Association for Advancing Automation President Jeff Burnstein told Axios. “You have to take advantage of the best tools available.
“It’s another chance for the U.S. to lead.”
Notably, China had seen this years ago, ramping up is automation production with a national robotics policy and the new Made in China 2025 initiative that Burnstein is calling on America to at least match, if not exceed.
America, particularly with the strength of resistance from workers’ unions, must drop the stigma of reliance on automation in manufacturing, because outside of automaking, U.S. robotics use in manufacturing lags worldwide, according to IFR President Takayuki Ito.
“The United States has one of the most automated car industries in the world: The ratio of robots to factory workers ranks fifth, tied with Japan and Germany and ahead of China,” Ito said. “This is a great achievement of modernization.
“However, in other key areas of manufacturing automation, the U.S. lags behind its competitors.”
China ranks third in the world with 470 robots per 10,000 manufacturing employees, while the U.S. lags behind with the 10th-highest ratio (295 robots per 10,000 employees) among all industries, according to IFR.
Most of that is in the automaking sector, though, where “around 40% of all new industrial robot installations in 2024 are in automotive” in the U.S., the IFR reported.
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