The Šabac robot plant opens: assembly has started, the numbers still don't match
On 29 August 2026 the humanoid-robot plant in Šabac opened. President Aleksandar Vučić and Minth founder Qin Ronghua put a serial number on the first robot made there, after two robots in folk costume and šajkača caps, Milutin and Dragutin, had greeted the delegation. The project had been given three start dates in under three months; the last one, end of August, held.
What opened
- Who: Minth Group, a Chinese car-parts maker working in Serbia since 2018, with robotics company AGIBOT as partner.
- Money and jobs: €20 million for the first phase and about 200 workers at the start.
- What: humanoid and four-legged robots. Finance Minister Siniša Mali said 80 robots from Šabac will go to Expo 2027 in Belgrade.
Assembly and calibration, for now
At the plant the president was shown how humanoids are assembled and how their movements and cameras are calibrated. Vučić, as quoted by Radio Free Europe, said Šabac would “assemble, and later produce” robots. What production means in the first phase, and whether finished components will come from China, was not specified: RFE/RL got no answer from the Serbian government, Minth or AGIBOT. Minth and AGIBOT also did not tell RFE/RL whether data collected by robots made in Serbia will be available to the Chinese manufacturer.
Numbers that don't match
- Before the opening: 1,000–2,000 a year, the figure used by AGIBOT and Minister Mali.
- 29 August: Vučić — more than 5,000 a year in Šabac.
- Whole project: up to 20,000 humanoids and robot dogs a year, counting a planned €200 million robotics park in Inđija.
All three are targets, not output. The first checkable figure will be how many robots actually leave the Šabac line by the end of the year.
“Europe's first” — in what sense
At the opening Šabac was billed as Europe's first humanoid-robot factory, as it had been in June. The narrower wording is safer: the first plant in Europe for serial assembly of Chinese-designed humanoids. Humanoids themselves are not new to European industry — BMW has been testing Hexagon Robotics' AEON at its Leipzig plant since December 2025.
What we'll watch
In July we set a narrow test: did assembly begin, on what line, with what first output. The line exists and the first robot has a serial number. Still open: how many units ship in 2026, which parts are made in Serbia, and who buys them. Under the US rule adopted in July, a robot assembled in Šabac counts as foreign-produced, so its realistic market lies outside the US.
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