Auto Parts Makers Nearly Doubled Robot Orders as Food Plants Pulled Back

North American robot orders reached 10,989 units worth $723.5 million in the third quarter of 2026, up 24.8% in units and 26.1% in value from a year earlier, A3 reported on Oct. 28. The split underneath was wide: automotive component suppliers raised orders 90.4%, metals buyers raised theirs 37.0% in units, and food and consumer goods orders fell 23.7%.

Auto parts makers did not post the fastest growth. Semi & Electronics/Photonics rose 97.6% in units, which puts component suppliers second among named sectors. The public release gives sector percentages only, so no sector can be called the largest by volume either.

For a capex plan, the bigger point is that both headline swings sit on unusual comparisons. Components fell 25% in Q3 2025, and food rose 105%. Chain the two years and food orders sit about 56% above Q3 2024, components about 43% and the total market about 39%, by ManufacturingMag's arithmetic. On that view, food slowed sharply in one quarter but has not retreated.

The strongest quarter of 2026 so far

A3 called Q3 the strongest quarter of the year so far, ahead of Q1 (9,055 units, $543 million) and Q2 (8,940 units, $622 million). Through nine months, North American companies ordered 28,984 robots worth about $1.89 billion, up 9.6% in units and 13.3% in value. The same period of 2025 came in at 26,441 robots and about $1.7 billion.

"What stands out in the third quarter is not simply the magnitude of the growth, but how broadly it was distributed across the market," Alex Shikany, A3's executive vice president, told The Robot Report. The breadth is real but has limits. Plastics and rubber rose 67.7% in units and life sciences, pharma and biomed rose 38.7%, while All Other Industries gained 0.5% and food fell.

Collaborative robots outran the market. A3 counted 1,831 cobots worth $63.8 million, up about 56% in units from 1,174 units and $42 million a year earlier, and they made up 16.7% of Q3 units. Through nine months, cobots were 43.8% of orders in life sciences, pharma and biomed and 36.9% in semi, electronics and photonics.

Sector benchmarks: one year and two years

The right-hand column is our calculation, not A3 data. It compounds the Q3 2025 and Q3 2026 year-over-year changes and assumes both years are comparable bases, which A3 does not state. Q3 2025 sector figures were not labeled as units or value in the reports we used.

Plastics shows how much the base matters. A 67.7% gain looks like a boom, yet the two-year figure is the weakest in the table.

Auto suppliers: strong, but near the market on two years

Component demand was already running ahead of last year before Q3. Orders rose 28.1% in units in Q1, per A3's first-quarter report, and rose 20% in Q2, for a 24% first-half gain in units. A3 described the Q3 jump as "continuing the strong demand from suppliers seen earlier in the year." It gave no specific reason for the size of the move.

Automakers look different. OEM orders returned to growth with a 7.5% gain, but A3 said "they remained 17% below their year-earlier level through the first nine months of 2026." OEM orders were down 25% in the first half. The OEM two-year figure of about +81% rests almost entirely on a 68% gain in Q3 2025, so it says little about current momentum.

A supplier benchmarking its own automation spending should not use +90.4% as the yardstick. The first-half gain of 24% and the two-year figure of about 43% are better comparisons, and the latter is only slightly ahead of the market's roughly 39%.

Food plants: first decline of 2026, against a +105% comparison

Food and consumer goods orders rose 16.0% in units in Q1 and 18% in Q2, for a 17% first-half gain in units. The Q3 decline ended that run, and it came against the sector's 105% jump in Q3 2025.

A3 gives no reason for the drop, and one quarter is not a trend. Budget restraint on the food side is documented separately, though. Food Processing's March tally of 25 food and beverage companies found they "spent 8.8% less on actual capital expenditures in 2025 than they had budgeted" and $1.6 billion less than in 2024. Sixteen of the 25 came in under budget. Fourteen plan to spend less in 2026 than in 2025, 10 of them by more than 10%, although the group as a whole forecast a 2.9% increase.

Utz Brands offers one company-level example. Its CFO said capacity, automation and modernization spending reached "7% of net sales" over two years, with capex expected to fall to about 4% in 2026. That tally predates Q3 and covers capex broadly, so it provides context for the robot numbers without explaining them.

Metals shows the cleanest acceleration

Metals has the steadiest path in the data: up 3% in units in the first half, up 18% in Q2 and up 37.0% in units in Q3, on top of an 11% gain in Q3 2025. Unlike components or food, its Q3 figure does not depend on an abnormal prior-year quarter. For mid-market metalworking shops, this is the reading to watch.

There is older supporting evidence on machinery spending. AMT's USMTO report put US metalworking machinery orders at $681.3 million in March 2026, up 31.5%, and Q1 at $1.61 billion, up 27.8%. Those figures are background from before the quarter, not a Q3 cross-check.

Output does not explain the gap

The Federal Reserve's Oct. 16 G.17 release shows both broad industries shrinking in the quarter. Motor vehicles and parts output fell at a 3.4% annual rate in Q3, and food, beverage and tobacco fell at a 3.3% rate. Total manufacturing output rose 1.1% over 12 months, with capacity utilization at 75.9%. These figures are preliminary, and the Fed's categories are broader than A3's.

Similar output declines sat alongside a gap of about 114 points in robot order growth. Our inference is that these orders are not tracking near-term volume. A3's own caveat points the same way: "Higher input costs, trade uncertainty, and the timing of large manufacturing projects remain factors to watch." Project timing can move a sector's quarterly number sharply, though A3 does not attribute either Q3 swing to it.

Purchasing data adds a mixed signal. ISM's September Manufacturing PMI was 54.5, and both Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products and Transportation Equipment reported growth and increased new orders. One anonymous Transportation Equipment respondent still said: "Buying continues to get pushed out indefinitely as customers don't want to spend on capital expenditures."

Using the numbers in a capex budget

Dividing order value by units gives a rough average of about $65,800 per robot in Q3, against about $65,200 a year earlier. By the same arithmetic, cobots averaged about $34,800 and all other robots about $72,000. These are our calculations from A3 totals.

Treat them as market-wide markers, not cell budgets. The average swung from about $60,000 in Q1 to about $69,600 in Q2, A3 does not state whether order value includes integration, and no sector-level dollar figures are public. A quote for a specific cell has to come from the actual scope.

Payback needs the same discipline. If a cell is justified partly on recovered uptime, separate lost contribution from incremental recovery costs; our free downtime cost calculator is built for that split.

Section 232: no tariff today, but a date to plan around

On the same day A3 released its numbers, the White House signed a proclamation finding that imports of robotics, industrial machinery and their parts threaten national security. It directs Commerce and USTR to negotiate, with a progress update due "within 180 days of the date of this proclamation," or about April 26, 2027, by our count. Possible later remedies include "imposing or modifying tariffs, duties, quotas, and fees" and a program to incentivize US production. The proclamation does not define "robotics."

EY says it "does not currently impose new duties" and "does not yet identify specific products or Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) classifications." Ash Sharma of Interact Analysis told The Robot Report: "This shouldn't be read as a new robotics tariff today." Commerce opened the investigation on Sept. 2, 2025, and the proclamation came after the quarter closed, so it cannot explain Q3 orders.

The decision for buyers is contractual. Following EY's guidance, model tariff scenarios on planned robot purchases and review terms such as tariff allocation and change-in-law provisions before signing.

Caveats on the data

• Single source. A3, based in Ann Arbor, Mich., with members representing more than 1,500 organizations, is the only source for every order figure here. Copies of its release are the basis for this report.

• No public sector base. The sector figures are percentages only. Sector detail is available on request for press and through the A3 Vault for member companies.

• Mixed metrics. The release does not label the components, OEM or food percentages as units or value, so we describe them as orders.

• Geography. A3 covers North America, while the Fed and ISM data cover the US only.

• Scope. Orders are not installations or total project capex.

• Base check. The prior-year total does reconcile: 10,989 divided by 1.248 gives about 8,805, against the 8,806 first reported for Q3 2025.

Related reading

• How Much Does a Cobot Welding Cell Cost to Install?

• Was Megacasting Really What Slowed Volvo's EX60?

• How to Check Metal 3D Printing Post Processing Cost in Supplier Quotes

• Should You Lease or Buy a Five-Axis Machining Center?

• Food Plants, Not Car Plants, Drove US Robot Installations in 2025

• More Automation & Robotics coverage

Sources

• The Robot Report: North American robot orders climb 24.8% in Q3 of 2026, says A3

• Business Wire via Yahoo Finance: North American Robot Orders Increase 24.8% in Third Quarter of 2026

• Robotics Tomorrow: North American Robot Orders Increase 24.8% in Third Quarter of 2026

• FinancialContent: North American Robot Orders Increase 24.8% in Third Quarter of 2026

• Robotics 24/7: A3: North American robot orders increase 24.8% in Q3 2026

• The Robot Report: North American Robot Orders Increase, Q3 2025

• Modern Materials Handling: Robot orders rise in Q3

• The Robot Report: Q2 2026 robotics demand increased across industries, reports A3

• I-Connect007: Robot Orders Hold Steady in Q1 2026 as Demand Broadens Across Non-Automotive Industries

• Plastics Machinery & Manufacturing: Robot orders show improvement in Q2 2026

• Federal Reserve: G.17 Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization, Oct. 16, 2026

• Textile World reprint: Manufacturing PMI at 54.5%, September 2026 ISM Manufacturing PMI Report

• Food Processing: 2026 Capital Spending Outlook: Tightening the Belt

• White House: Adjusting Imports of Robotics, Industrial Machinery, and Their Parts and Components into the United States

• EY: US concludes Section 232 investigation into robotics and industrial machinery imports and directs trade negotiations

• The Robot Report: White House makes Section 232 determination regarding foreign-made robots

• Metrology News: Manufacturing Technology Orders Climb as U.S. Investment Momentum Builds