HEFEI, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- Luca Samar, a 29-year-old software engineer from Udine in northern Italy, recently made his ninth business trip to the city of Wuhu, which is located on the banks of the Yangtze River in east China's Anhui Province.

He will stay in Wuhu for about a month, working closely with his Chinese colleagues at EFORT Intelligent Robot Co., Ltd. to optimize simulation systems for painting robots.

"I visit EFORT about four times a year. We talk about all the issues of the software, analyze new requirements, and improve all the capabilities of the software," Samar told Xinhua, adding that such collaboration is highly efficient as the company releases a new system version almost every quarter.

Samar works for CMA Robotics, an Italian company with over 20 years of experience in the field of painting robots. In 2015, EFORT acquired the company, which now serves as EFORT's intelligent painting robotics R&D center in Italy.

Originally incubated within a Chery Automobile factory, EFORT sought partnerships in Italy early in its development. Between 2015 and 2017, the company invested in and acquired four Italian robotics firms specializing in smart painting, motion control, robotics integration and other areas.

"Northern Italy boasts advanced robotics and automation technologies. Italians are passionate and creative, and this creativity has given Italian companies a strong competitive edge in these fields," said You Wei, EFORT's chairman and CEO.

Over the past decade, EFORT and its Italian partners have deepened their technology exchange and resource sharing, working together to advance industrial robotics technology.

"By innovating on Italian technology, we have strengthened our technical capabilities and developed more affordable and more advanced robots through independent R&D. We have also helped Italian companies gain better access to the Chinese market and benefit from its growth," You said.

China has remained the world's largest industrial robotics market for 12 consecutive years. By integrating Europe's cutting-edge tech with China's manufacturing strength and vast application scenarios, EFORT has expanded rapidly.

In 2024, the company sold over 16,000 industrial robots, which are used in a broad range of sectors, including electronics, photovoltaics, auto parts and shipbuilding.

In addition to facilitating intelligent production in Chinese factories, EFORT has also partnered with Italian automakers such as Maserati and Fiat, as well as German car manufacturers like BMW and Volkswagen.

"We provide these automakers with integrated robotics solutions for smart production, covering painting, welding, precision assembly and the handling of materials, among other tasks, helping them improve their production efficiency," You said, adding that the company began exporting its robots to Europe in 2019.

In 2024, China became the world's second-largest exporter of industrial robots. The exports grew 61.5 percent year on year in the first half of this year.

China's booming artificial intelligence (AI) industry has contributed to the rising international competitiveness of Chinese robots, You noted.

"In intelligent welding, for example, our robotics systems -- based on mass scenario data, AI and machine vision technology -- enable the robots to automatically generate welding programs to perform high-precision tasks without manual programming," he said, highlighting that this significantly lowers the threshold for adoption among small and medium-sized enterprises.

At the ongoing 2025 World Manufacturing Convention in Hefei, the capital city of Anhui, EFORT showcased some of its advanced robotics technologies, including a universal technology base for intelligent robots and an embodied-intelligence robot designed to handle materials on automotive assembly lines.

Further cooperation between China and Italy in the field of robotics is underway. This April, Advanced Robotics and Enabling Digital Technologies & Systems 4.0, a research center of Italy, signed a cooperation agreement with an innovation center in Beijing to establish a joint robotics research center.

"China boasts rich application scenarios and a solid manufacturing foundation, while Europe has strong technological expertise in automation and robotics. Cooperation between the two sides has bright prospects," You said.