Humanoid robots are considered a growth sector for the future. While the US is banning the import of new Chinese robots, assembly has begun in Serbia. How much do they cost, when assembled in Serbia?

While the €20 million factory in Šabac, Serbia—a joint venture between China's Minth Group and Shanghai robotics firm AGIBOT—has officially launched mass assembly, the companies have not yet publicly disclosed the retail pricing for the specific humanoid units built there.

However, looking at AGIBOT’s baseline pricing structure and current global market benchmarks reveals the following cost dynamics:

•           The Baseline Chinese Advantage: AGIBOT is famous for driving aggressive cost-cutting. In China, standard deployable Chinese humanoid robots generally target a price range between $20,000 and $30,000 for basic commercial models, with low-tier development units dipping closer to $5,000.

•           The Sourcing Disadvantage Without China: Building similar humanoid hardware entirely inside the U.S. or Western Europe without using highly subsidized Chinese supply chains spikes production costs significantly. Industry data indicates an identical unit built without Chinese suppliers jumps from a manufacturing cost of $50,000 to roughly $150,000 (a 3x increase).

•           The Serbian Strategic Loophole: By importing Chinese components and completing final assembly at the Šabac plant, the project aims to label the final machines as "Made in Serbia." Because Serbia enjoys preferential trade conditions with Brussels, this structure is designed to bypass future EU tariffs and restrictions, keeping the final European market price far closer to China's low baseline than the steep premium of Western competitors.

The facility is targeting an initial output of 5,000 robots and robotic dogs per year, with plans to scale up to 20,000 units annually once a broader €200 million Industrial Park opens in Inđija.