The Chinese robotics companies most frequently discussed in English media are the humanoid startups: AgiBot, Unitree, UBTECH, Galbot. These companies are real and their technology is impressive. But they represent a thin slice of China’s robotics industry. Two companies that rarely appear in English coverage, STEP Electric and Borunte, are more typical of the broader Chinese robot hardware sector: precision component manufacturers and SME-focused robot builders that collectively account for far more revenue and units than the humanoid sector. Understanding STEP and Borunte helps calibrate the scale of Chinese robotics beyond the AI-humanoid story.
STEP Electric: The Linear Motion Specialist
STEP Electric (Sechuan STEP) is listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and specializes in linear actuators, integrated joint modules, and servo systems. The company’s relevance to the humanoid discussion is direct: its linear actuators and joint modules are components in several Chinese humanoid robot arms. Humanoid joint actuators require compact, high-force-density linear or rotary actuators with integrated control electronics, STEP’s product line fits this specification. Revenue in 2025: approximately CNY 2.5-3 billion ($344-$413M). This is entirely in motion control components, STEP does not manufacture finished robots. Its customers are robot manufacturers, machine tool builders, and automation system integrators.
STEP’s linear actuator specifications: force range 100N to 50,000N, stroke 50mm to 2,000mm, repeatability ±0.01mm, speed up to 300mm/s. Integrated joint modules (for humanoid and collaborative robot applications): torque range 20Nm to 500Nm, gear ratio options 50:1 to 200:1, integrated encoder with 20-bit resolution, 1kHz control bandwidth. The 20-bit encoder resolution and 1kHz bandwidth are specifications that match humanoid joint requirements. STEP publicly discloses that it supplies components to humanoid robot customers but does not name them.
STEP Humanoid Joint Module
In 2025, STEP launched a dedicated joint module product line for humanoid robots, a pre-integrated assembly combining motor, gearbox, encoder, driver electronics, and thermal management in a single bolt-in module. The module is designed to reduce humanoid robot assembly complexity: instead of integrating five separate components at each joint, manufacturers install one STEP module. At a humanoid robot with 20-40 joints, this represents significant assembly labor reduction and reliability improvement (fewer inter-component connections, single-supplier quality accountability). Pricing: CNY 8,000-25,000 per joint module depending on torque rating. At a 30-joint humanoid, joint module cost would be CNY 240,000-750,000 ($33,000-$103,000), a significant portion of total BOM.
Borunte: 20,000 Units Per Year to SMEs
Borunte Robot (Guangdong) is one of China’s highest-volume robot manufacturers by unit count, shipping approximately 20,000 robots per year, primarily to small and medium enterprises in Guangdong’s manufacturing corridor. Revenue: approximately CNY 1.5-2 billion ($206-$275M). Average selling price: CNY 60,000-100,000 ($8,200-$13,700), significantly lower than Estun or Inovance’s comparable models. This is deliberate: Borunte’s market is SMEs that cannot afford premium robot prices and require simple, reliable automation without advanced programming requirements.
Borunte’s product philosophy: simple to install, simple to program, simple to maintain. Its teaching pendant interface uses visual task blocks rather than code, an operator with no programming experience can configure a pick-and-place application in under one hour. This simplicity comes with trade-offs: Borunte robots are not suitable for high-precision applications (repeatability ±0.05mm, versus ±0.02mm for Estun or Han’s Robot), and AI integration is limited compared to iMRS 2.0 or AgiBot platforms. For SME applications, tending injection molding machines, stacking boxes, loading and unloading CNC lathes, these trade-offs are acceptable. Borunte’s customer retention rate is reportedly above 70% (most customers who buy one Borunte robot buy additional units within 18 months).
Guangdong Manufacturing Corridor
Borunte is strategically located to serve the Guangdong manufacturing corridor, the Pearl River Delta region encompassing Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan, Foshan, and surrounding areas. This region has the highest SME manufacturing density in China, with hundreds of thousands of factories producing electronics components, plastics, hardware, toys, textiles, and apparel. Borunte’s sales teams are embedded in local industrial parks, providing faster response time and local technical support than national manufacturers headquartered in other provinces. This geographic concentration is a competitive advantage that large national competitors (Siasun in Shenyang, Estun in Nanjing) cannot easily replicate.
The Unsung Layer
STEP and Borunte together represent what could be called the unsexy majority of Chinese robotics, component suppliers and volume manufacturers that don’t appear in humanoid press releases but collectively ship far more units and revenue than the headline humanoid companies. STEP’s joint modules are enabling humanoids to be built faster and cheaper. Borunte’s 20,000 units per year are automating the SME factories that employ tens of millions of Chinese workers. Both matter more to China’s actual automation trajectory than any single humanoid announcement.
Full ranking: Top 40 China Robot Rankings 2025. Component supply chain: robot manufacturers China.
Sources
- STEP Electric: Annual report 2025, humanoid joint module product launch
- Borunte: Corporate profile and sales data (2025)
- CRIA: China SME robot adoption statistics 2025
- Shanghai/Shenzhen Stock Exchange: STEP and Borunte filings
