Hanwha Group ventures into collaborative robot market for growth

Doosan Robotics Inc.’s collaborative robots. [Courtesy of Doosan Robotics]

South Korea’s Hanwha Group is accelerating its entry into the bourgeoning collaborative robot market that is projected to reach $10 billion globally in the next five years.

According to Hanwha Group on Sunday, Hanwha Corp., the conglomerate’s holding company, will spin off its collaborative robot and automated guided vehicle (AGV) units that are under the factory automation (FA) division and establish Hanwha Robotics in October.

Hanwha will invest 68 percent in Hanwha Robotics and Hanwha Hotels & Resorts Co. 32 percent.

Hanwha Robotics is expected to actively engage in robot-use mobile platform business to advance into the intelligent collaborative robot market, which involves machines that are capable of carrying and transporting items on their own.

Seo Jong-hwi, a former Samsung Electronics official and expert in robot engineering, will lead the new company.

Seo joined Hanwha Group last year as the conglomerate boosts efforts to advance into the robot business.

Hanwha Group is expected to compete with Doosan Robotics Inc., which has been taking the lead in the local collaborative robot market as the only local manufacturer that has generated profit from overseas.

Doosan Robotics is ranked as the world’s fifth player with a market share of 5 percent after Denmark’s Universal Robots, Taiwan’s Techman Robot, Japan’s Fanuc Corp, and China’s AUBO Robotics.

Samsung Electronics Co. is also ramping up investment in collaborative robots.

The company invested 86.8 billion won ($65.2 million) this year to secure a 15 percent stake in Rainbow Robotics, a manufacturer of industrial collaborative robots.

Korean conglomerates’ move comes as the collaborative robot industry is projected to reach $10.5 billion by 2027, up from $1.2 billion in 2021.

“Global industry shifts, such as shortages of the labor force and rising labor costs, will likely drive growth of the robotics industry,” said Yang Seung-yoon, an analyst at Eugene Investment & Securities Co. “The industry could grow on a collaboration of various enterprises that seek competitive edges in software.”