SINGAPORE (Jan 24): Spending on robotics and associated services in Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) is forecast to hit US$129.4 billion (S$175.9 billion) by 2022 — three times the spending in 2018, according to global market intelligence firm International Data Corporation (IDC).

"To survive the escalating competition, APEJ manufacturing organizations surveyed by IDC in 2018 are putting robotics as their top priority for technology investment," says Dr Zhang Jing Bing, research director for worldwide robotics at IDC. “While the uncertainty of the trade war between the United States and China is likely to dampen market growth in the near term, we expect the growth trend to pick up from 2020 onward.”

Discrete manufacturing is the dominant industry in robotics spending, including drones. This accounts for...(click on link for full story on theedgesingapore.com)