Estun Turns Profitable in 2025 Half-Year Report, Industrial Robot Shipments Rank First Among Domestic Brands

RobotAfter two years of industry adjustments, EstonIn 2025, the company is set to reach a critical turning point. In 2024, it experienced its largest loss since listing, with a deficit of 810 million yuan, mainly due to goodwill impairment exceeding 340 million yuan from companies such as Germany's KUKA and a sharp decline in gross profit margin caused by price wars. As the industry's destocking cycle ends, Estun seized the opportunity of market recovery, achieving nearly 20% growth in shipments in the first quarter and surpassing foreign brands in market share for the first time, topping the domestic market.

In 2024, with a huge loss of 810 million, Estun has recorded its worst performance in ten years since going public.

Over the past two years, the industrial automation and industrial robotics sectors have experienced a downturn, entering a critical phase of inventory reduction and industry elimination, which has posed challenges to the operations of companies within the sector.New Star(17.310, -0.52, -2.92%)The industrial robots of Siasun Robot and Estun Automation are showing a loss situation.

Among them, Estun not only experienced sluggish revenue last year but also turned from profit to loss, facing severe challenges. The full-year revenue for 2024 was 4 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 13.83%, with a loss as high as 810 million yuan. The net profit in the same period last year was 135 million yuan, marking the largest loss since its listing.

In 2024, significant losses stemmed from the goodwill impairment of over 340 million yuan due to the acquisitions of German company KROOS and British company TRIO. Meanwhile, intensified market competition, industry saturation, and declining product prices, coupled with changes in product structure, led to an overall decrease in gross profit margin.

In the first half of 2025, Estun turned losses into profits and won the championship in the Chinese industrial robot market for the first time.

The demand for industrial automation is experiencing a recovery, leading to a steady growth in the demand for industrial robots. After nearly two years of inventory digestion, China's industrial robot market is showing signs of a phased recovery.

According to data from MIR Rui Industrial, approximately 77,000 industrial robots were shipped in China in the first quarter of 2025, representing a year-on-year increase of 11.6%. With the industrial robot market experiencing double-digit growth, Estun, as a leading domestic industrial robot company, is also ushering in a turning point in its performance.

In the first half of 2025, Estun is expected to achieve a net profit of between 0 and 15 million yuan, turning around from a net loss of 73.416 million yuan in the same period last year. This turnaround is mainly attributed to a recovery in market demand and the accelerated pace of domestic substitution.

Estun is the domestic industrial robot brand with the highest shipment volume in China. In the first quarter of 2025, Estun Robotics achieved a year-on-year growth of nearly 20%, accounting for 10.3% of the Chinese robot market share, becoming the first domestic robot brand to top the Chinese robot market.

Meanwhile, domestic industrial robot manufacturers hold a market share of 51.4%, firmly occupying a favorable position in market competition. With the recovery of demand in the industrial robot market and the accelerated process of domestic substitution, Estun’s industrial robot shipments have continued to grow, further increasing its market share.

In the first quarter of this year, demand in the industrial automation market showed signs of recovery, with ESTUN’s downstream industries experiencing relatively strong demand. Among them, the automotive, electronics, and lithium battery sectors all demonstrated rapid growth. Based on the long-term trends of "machine substitution" and domestic substitution, as well as the increasing demand for automation and intelligent development in downstream industries, ESTUN believes that the industrial robot market will still have considerable growth potential in 2025.

Overseas expansion drags down net profit excluding non-recurring items, with core profitability remaining weak.

Overall, the trend of domestic substitution is inevitable, providing leading domestic robot companies with more market opportunities. However, the current industrial robot market faces severe homogenization competition, with intense product competition and frequent price wars.

In response, Eston claims to invest more R&D resources in high-threshold and high-technical-barrier industrial robot applications, developing more competitive industrial robots and solution products, targeting robot products for emerging industry demands and high-barrier industry applications, focusing on high-end application scenarios, and enhancing product competitiveness.

Estun is actively expanding its global business for overseas markets, continuing to strengthen the development of international markets and outbound business. The main focus is on expanding markets in Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, while paying attention to the overseas opportunities of leading domestic customers in new energy vehicles and lithium battery equipment sectors. It is expected that the overseas market will become an important growth driver for the business.

However, due to the significant increase in expenses related to building overseas teams, expanding into new markets, and promoting the brand and products through exhibitions, the net profit after deducting non-recurring gains and losses remains in deficit.

In the era of generative AI, driven by new technologies such as large AI models, big data, and the Internet of Things, new momentum is being brought to industrial transformation and upgrading. Especially centered on the application of AI technology, intelligentization is the future development trend of industrial robots. By integrating industrial robots with cutting-edge technologies like AI large models and machine vision, industrial robots are advancing towards intelligence and autonomous decision-making.

Overall, in the production process, the continuous advancement of digitalization, automation, and intelligence has driven the expanding deployment scale of industrial robots. As a result, China has become the world's largest consumer of industrial robots and has maintained its position as the largest robot market globally for 12 consecutive years.

At the same time, with the trend of domestic substitution, China's industrial robot industry is in a period of accelerated domestic substitution. The market is showing a pattern of high-end breakthroughs and customized services. When choosing products, customers are increasingly focusing on the autonomy and controllability of product supply and the demand for customization.

As a result, the situation where foreign-funded manufacturers previously dominated the main market share has changed. Now, the sales of industrial robots by leading domestic manufacturers continue to grow, and their market share has surpassed that of foreign brands. Against the backdrop of domestic substitution, industrial robots remain a promising and expansive track.

Yang Jianyong, a contributor for Forbes China, expresses views that are solely his own. He is dedicated to providing in-depth analysis of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, AI large models, the Internet of Things, cloud services, and smart homes.

(Source: Sensing Internet of Things)