(Yicai) Oct. 16 -- Robots of various types have gone on show at the second session of the twice-yearly China Import and Export Fair, better known as the Canton Fair, and despite tariff concerns Chinese products remain competitive, drawing foreign buyers, including from the United States.

Zhihui Technology’s commercial-use vacuum cleaner robots secured over CNY1 million (USD140,400) of potential orders on the fair’s first day, said Chief Marketing Officer Guo Wei, adding that the Shenzhen-based firm expects its exports to triple this year.

Zhihui Technology, whose main export markets include Europe, North America, East Asia, and Southeast Asia, signed around 2,000 overseas orders in the six months ended June 30, and that growth momentum has continued in the second half of this year, he said.

Exports to the United States have not been majorly hit by the higher tariffs, Guo pointed out, partly because US distributors of Chinese-made robot vacuum cleaners sell them for several times what Zhihui Technology exports them at, enabling them to absorb the impact.

Abdelhamid Yousef, a buyer from Miami, told Yicai that he was attending the Canton Fair for the first time and plans to buy robots that can deliver food and parcels indoors. US immigration restrictions have affected labor supply in the logistics sector, boosting demand for robots, he said.

China's robotics industry leads the world with high-quality products, so doing business with Chinese companies is still appealing in spite of the uncertainty surrounding US tariff policy, Yousef noted.

"Overseas demand for delivery and cleaning robots is strong due to high local labor costs," said Bi Cheng, a public relations manager at Pudu Technology, which supplies indoor catering robots. The Canton Fair has attracted many overseas buyers with a real need for these products, he noted.

At Magic Atom, which produces general-purpose humanoid and quadruped robots, exports account for nearly half of total revenue, according to Wu Jian, the Wuxi-based firm’s international sales manager. Its androids and robot dogs are mainly shipped out to the European and American markets, he added.

China has a large pool of robotics researchers and engineers, and Chinese firms produce at low cost and iterate quickly by integrating cross-disciplinary technologies, Guo said. China also has interdisciplinary talent across software, hardware, algorithms, and communications, enabling timely after-sales support globally, he said.

In addition, China's supply chain advantages stand out, Guo noted, adding that 95 percent of the hundreds of components used in commercial cleaning robots can be sourced in the Pearl River Delta region, with suppliers able to respond to the various needs of companies within an hour.

The 138th Canton Fair opened in Guangzhou yesterday and runs through Nov. 4. The event has attracted more 240,000 buyers from 218 countries and regions, with more than 32,000 firms displaying their latest products, according to the event’s organizer.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev