Storyline: China's LiDAR industry rides on robotics boom [Voice_over] Chinese LiDAR manufacturers are scaling up production to meet a surge in orders, driven by robust demand from the fast-growing robotics industry. LiDAR, or light detection and ranging, is a key component that enables robots to perform tasks like positioning, navigation, and obstacle avoidance. Data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology shows that in the first six months of the year, China produced 370,000 industrial robots, a 35 percent increase from last year, and nearly 9 million service robots, a roughly 25 percent increase from last year. With robots being increasingly deployed across manufacturing, logistics, and daily services industries, Chinese LiDAR suppliers are riding strong tailwinds. In the southern tech hub of Shenzhen, a LiDAR manufacturer is running at full capacity to meet demand. [Sound_bite] Fu Guohe, head, robotics company in Shenzhen: "Our procurement volume of LiDAR this year has already quadrupled compared to last year. The advantage of domestically produced LiDAR is its high cost-performance ratio, stability, and reliability, which meet the demands of our diverse operational scenarios." [Sound_bite] Chen Bin, deputy general manager, LiDAR company in Shenzhen: "We have increased our production lines from two or three to four. In the first half of the year, our domestic sales of LiDAR and other sensors for robotics nearly doubled compared to the same period last year." [Voice_over] Elsewhere in the city, another LiDAR company says it has orders scheduled through the end of the year. [Sound_bite] Tong Haiyan, head of marketing department, LiDAR company in Shenzhen: "LiDAR used in robots has made up about 70 percent of our sales so far this year." [Voice_over] Industrial data shows that the value of China's LiDAR market is expected to exceed 3 billion U.S. dollars this year and jump to 6 billion U.S. dollars in 2026. [Restrictions : No access Chinese mainland]