With the number of warehouses increasing rapidly worldwide due to e-commerce, the capacity and the size of the warehouses are also quickly increasing. As a result, according to a new report from Research and Markets, warehouses are increasingly focusing on using automation solutions for greater material handling capacity and reduced time-to-handle.
While the perception would be that warehouse automation is pretty common, more than 80% of warehouses today have no automation whatsoever, the report notes.
However, since the last decade, around 15% of the warehouses are being mechanized, while only 5% are using sophisticated automation equipment and solutions. This brings immense market opportunities for the companies in the warehousing automation ecosystem.
The warehouse automation market in 2019 was estimated at $15 billion up by 10.9% from the previous year
In 2020, the total warehouse automation market has experienced a decline of 6%.
However, this year (2021) is estimated to witness growth of almost 38.4% to reach $19.5 billion
According to estimates, the market is expected to grow by 1.5 times in the mid-term (by 2025) and further expected to cross $37.6 billion by 2030. The calculated compound annual growth between 2021 and 2030 is estimated to be around 10 %.
This report focuses on the two major mobile robots used in the warehouses - automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and automated mobile robots (AMRs). The mobile robot market was estimated at $2.5 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow to approximately 10 times than the current market by 2030. The growth will be majorly driven by the AMRs. More than 55,000 AMRs were sold in 2020 for warehouses and logistics applications, which has tripled as compared to the sales in 2018.
Source: MH&L - Warehousing