Cautiously optimistic: Volker Spanier on the future of the industry in Europe
3 questions for Volker Spanier, Chairman of the Management Board at VDMA Robotics and Head of Manufacturing Solutions, Epson Deutschland GmbH
There are initial signs of economic recovery. What is your outlook on the European automation industry? Will it see growth again?
Volker Spanier: Currently, there are quite a few indicators for a slow recovery. The forecasts of leading economic research institutes seem to confirm this. Personally, I look to the future with cautious optimism. I say cautiously because the entire global economy is rather fragile these days. The way I see it, geopolitical risks—I am thinking about Ukraine, Greenland and Taiwan—are just as unpredictable as Donald Trump's customs policy. And then there are unpredictable developments in the energy sector. I feel that strong, steady, sustainable growth is less than a certainty under these conditions.
What would politics have to do to strengthen the German industry’s competitiveness?
Volker Spanier: Politics would have to finally address the issues that have paralyzed us for some time now. These particularly include the reduction of bureaucracy and improvements in digitization. Even though the government has identified these issues and tried to take measures accordingly, there is just not enough progress in these matters. In addition, we need more reliability and less of the back-and-forth we have seen with the Buildings Energy Act and the phase-out of fossil fuel vehicles. On the positive side, I welcome the Mercosur free trade agreement and the government's investment tax incentive program, which, among other advantages, lets robot and equipment owners depreciate 30 percent of the acquisition costs in the first year using the declining balance method.
Many investments are postponed in economically challenging times. Do you think the emerging trend of robotics-as-a-service will make a difference and contribute to a revival of the automation industry?
Volker Spanier: RaaS is a promising approach that offers a specific range of users a perfect opportunity to enter the world of automation and robotics without large initial investments. Especially small and medium-sized businesses operating in markets where automation has not yet taken hold stand to benefit from it. However, I do not believe that RaaS is going to drive a significant upturn in the general R+A industry anytime soon. In order to do so, it would need a level of market penetration it has not yet achieved. Even though the RaaS market has grown by 42 percent in 2024, it is still relatively small as compared to the overall market volume. But nevertheless, RaaS has great potential in the medium term.