Inside China’s Machine · Frontier, Episode 3
Estun says it ranked first by shipments among all brands in China’s industrial-robot market in the first half of 2026, for the sixth quarter running, citing MIR DATA BANK. In the same half-year its revenue from customers in China fell 8.82%, to RMB 1,641.0m. In the three months to 30 June 2026, Fanuc’s robot division sold 21.1% more to China than a year earlier, counted in yen. The market grew: about 189,000 robots sold, 15.8% more than a year earlier, 58% of them from Chinese brands. Part of Estun’s fall was its choice: it says it reduced low-gross-margin business on purpose.
So did winning the volume pay? My reading is that China’s makers have the volume and have not yet shown the earning. Of every 100 yuan Estun sold, 31.81 was left after the direct cost of the goods, 4.17 points more than a year earlier. Set aside non-recurring items, and 2.72 was left after everything else.
Those items matter. A fair-value gain was just over half of Estun’s pre-tax profit, and Estun’s own report says it is not sustainable.