The growing presence of Chinese automation suppliers is a notable trend. It represents a significant strategic threat to established Western warehouse automation vendors, especially in regions where competition and labor laws are less regulated. One of the largest contributors to this are ‘hidden projects,’ in which contracts are awarded through direct China-to-China procurement channels and take place outside the public domain. This increases the risk of Western OEMs being excluded from opportunities before a competitive tender process even begins.
Over the past decade, several Chinese mobile robotics companies, most notably Geek+, Hai Robotics, and Hikrobot, have successfully expanded beyond domestic markets and established a strong international presence. More recently, our research has pointed to a new wave of Chinese warehouse automation vendors who focus primarily on fixed automation beginning to follow a very similar path. Companies such as Kengic, Wazyim and Bluesword are reported to be increasingly targeting foreign opportunities.
Historically, most Chinese fixed automation suppliers had very little incentive to expand internationally because of very strong domestic demand. This was driven by the rapid expansion of China’s e-commerce sector and the growth of the new energy vehicle (NEV) industry (leading to a wave of greenfield manufacturing facilities), both of which require significant intralogistics and warehouse automation.
However, market conditions have changed considerably since 2022. China’s economic slowdown has weakened consumer confidence and reduced investment in expanding fulfillment and sortation capacity. Paired with this, the number of domestic automation vendors has increased substantially over the past decade, creating a more competitive environment for the industry in general. These combined factors have led to many vendors accepting lower margins in order to remain competitive for domestic projects.
As a result of changing market conditions, international expansion has become a key strategic necessity for many Chinese automation suppliers to survive. Regions such as Southeast Asia, the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council), and parts of Europe are increasingly being targeted by Chinese vendors to access larger pools of clients and source new growth. This is achieved by leveraging their cost advantages in markets where automation adoption remains at a relatively early stage.
\nA key challenge we have identified when assessing warehouse automation market shares in less regulated regions, such as Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa, is that a sizeable proportion of Chinese-led projects never enter public tender processes or are even publicly announced. Many Chinese manufacturers, logistics providers, and industrial manufacturing companies in these regions procure their automation directly from established Chinese suppliers with which they already have an existing relationship through their domestic operations. These projects are often awarded through existing corporate networks, engineering, procurement, and construction contractors, or China-to-China procurement channels, rather than through traditional open competitive bidding. As a result, they are invisible to Western competitors and publicly available project databases.
Market share assessments, which are based solely on publicly disclosed projects, should be viewed as very conservative. Chinese suppliers are likely to hold much larger shares of the warehouse automation market in these regions than any publicly available data suggests, particularly within manufacturing facilities, logistics operations, and greenfield developments.
The increasing presence of Chinese automation suppliers is reshaping the competitive landscape across these regions’ warehouse automation markets, creating several key implications for Western vendors:
Risk of reduced access to project opportunities – Growing Chinese investment across manufacturing, logistics, and industrial developments, particularly in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, is creating procurement channels through which Chinese suppliers become the standard from the outset, limiting opportunities for Western vendors to effectively compete in these markets.
Increasing difficulty sustaining premium pricing – As Chinese technologies continue to improve at a rapid rate, Western suppliers may find it much harder to justify higher prices based purely on reputation, especially in cost-sensitive markets such as Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Customers are far more likely to place emphasis on deployment speed, ROI, and total cost of ownership.
Growing importance of partnerships and hybrid delivery models – Many Western automation providers are already sourcing components or technologies from Chinese manufacturers. Strategic partnerships are likely to become far more important, enabling Western players to remain cost-competitive while leveraging their existing strengths in consulting, local support and customer relationships.
The rise in Chinese warehouse automation suppliers exporting solutions is not simply a story of new competitors entering international markets. It reflects a broader shift in how automation projects are sourced, procured, and delivered across many emerging regions. As Chinese vendors expand globally and leverage existing commercial relationships, a growing proportion of projects may never enter the traditional competitive channels on which many Western suppliers have historically relied.
For Western automation providers, the challenge is therefore twofold: competing against increasingly capable low-cost alternatives, while also adapting to a market where visibility into opportunities is becoming more limited. Success will depend not only on technology leadership, but on building stronger local partnerships, enhancing customer proximity, and developing business models that can compete effectively in an evolving global landscape.
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