The robotics and automation industry in Germany is expected to generate a total revenue of 14.5 billion euros in 2025. This is a decrease of ten percent compared to the previous year. This was announced by the Robotics and Automation Association of the German Mechanical Engineering Industry Association (VDMA Robotics + Automation) on June 2 during a press conference in Munich.
“The revenue weakness of the industry announced at the beginning of the year has been confirmed in our current forecast for the year 2025,” said Dr. Dietmar Ley,
Chairman of VDMA Robotics + Automation. “Growth prospects are currently clouded in all subsectors until the end of the year.”
The industrial image processing sector is stagnating with zero growth and is expected to generate industry revenue of 3.1 billion euros. The revenue forecast for robotics has slightly worsened from minus three percent to minus five percent. Revenues of 3.7 billion euros are expected for 2025. The strongest decline is expected in automated solutions, where a revenue drop of minus 15 percent to 7.7 billion euros is projected.
According
to VDMA Robotics + Automation, major causes of the economic weakness in Europe and Germany are postponed investment plans due to current geopolitical tensions and increasing competitive pressure from competitors in the Far East. Companies in the robotics and automation sector are therefore working hard to strengthen their competitiveness. At automatica in Munich (June 24-27, 2025), the latest technologies and trends for all industrial sectors will be presented. Important focus topics include automation solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the use of AI.
“Robotics and automation are
key technologies without which industrial production in the high-wage country of Germany will no longer be conceivable in the future,” said Ley. “Politics and business must now work concertedly to eliminate location disadvantages in international competition and set the course back to growth.” The "VDMA Action Plan Robotics for Europe" formulates three core demands for this purpose:
- Make more venture capital available for start-ups and scale-ups.
- Establish a roadmap for competitiveness.
- Focus specifically on scaling European innovation.
- In addition, the investment promotion announced in the coalition agreement must now
