A decade after Germany's robotics company Kuka was sold to China's Midea, Europe is struggling to keep pace in the global race to deploy factory robots. China has expanded its robotics fleet at a much quicker pace than Europe, with almost half of the world's five million factory robots now in China. German robot installations are forecast to fall for the third straight year, while China's rollout intensifies, with China accounting for almost three out of five robots deployed globally last year compared to Germany's 25,000.

The widening gap exemplifies the growing economic threat China poses to Germany, as a flood of low-cost Chinese goods has contributed to the loss of about 14,000 industrial jobs a month in Germany. The European Union's trade deficit with China stands at 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) a day.

China's robotics sector has accelerated incredibly rapidly, with homegrown suppliers making up more than half of domestic installations compared to one-third a decade earlier. Since calling for a robot revolution in 2014, China has embarked on an ambitious campaign to disrupt manufacturing and dominate the field, though it still relies on high-end components from European and Japanese companies and AI chips from Nvidia.

European firms express concern about growing competition, with BMW and Hexagon Robotics planning to move humanoid robots into production in Leipzig by the first quarter.