By Joyce Lee

SEOUL (Reuters) -Shares in South Korea's Doosan Robotics soared above their initial public offering (IPO) price in the company's market debut on Thursday, based on investors' bullish outlook for the collaborative robot maker.

The company raised 421.2 billion won ($317 million) in South Korea's IPO this year, having priced the shares at 26,000 won each, the top of the price range flagged to investors.

Doosan Robotics shares opened at 59,100 won each and rose to as much as 67,600 won in early trade, more than twice the IPO price.

The company is a leading maker of so-called collaborative robots that work side-by-side with humans such as robot arms that can perform assembling, loading and welding tasks.

Investor demand for the share sale was strong. The institutional portion of the deal was covered 272 times according to a Doosan Robotics filing, while retail shareholders bet South Korean market's largest deposit this year of 33.1 trillion won to take their full entitlement in the deal.

In 2022, Doosan Robotics' revenue was evenly distributed with North America, Europe and South Korea accounting for about 30% of sales each.

Despite competition with Japan's Fanuc and Denmark's Universal Robots, there is a large burgeoning market to penetrate due to population decreases, labour shortages, steep rise in labour costs and reshoring in many countries, said Yang Seung-yoon, analyst at Eugene Investment & Securities.

"It's good timing for Doosan Robotics to preempt the market by expanding sales and product lineup, as first-comers are likely to be entrenched considering compatibility with existing facilities," Yang said.

The global robot market is forecasted to grow from $966 million in 2022 to $2.157 billion in 2025, with an annual growth rate of about 36%, the company said citing analysis provider Markets and Markets.

(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Additional reporting by Scott Murdoch; Editing by Tom Hogue, Jamie Freed and Michael Perry)