Plans to double sales, triple output for energy saving drives
Beijing, China, September 12, 2005 - ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, announced today it has invested around $10 million in a new facility in Beijing that makes a special energy saving technology called drives.
"Our drives business has grown during last 10 years in average by more than 40% a year," said Tauno Heinola, president of ABB Beijing Drive Systems Co. "With this important investment, we plan to double sales and triple production in China by 2008."
According to independent industry estimates, ABB is both China's and the world's leading supplier of alternating current drives.
Drives act like the gas pedal on a car, controlling the speed of electrical motors, which are used in everything from the production of metals, petrochemicals and air-conditioning, to the water, building automation, printing and textile machinery industries.
Heinola said the new operations include sales, marketing, after-sales support, engineering, R&D, sourcing, logistics and production.
"We plan to serve from this location both the domestic market and for some products in other Asian markets as well." he added. "With ten years of local production, sales, engineering and service experience behind us, and the continuously growing market demand, we are confident in our targets."
ABB's new operations include an incredibly advanced assembly line which is based on the "late configuration principle." This means any of several hundred product variants can be shipped in a few hours.
Pekka Tiitinen, vice president and head of ABB's global LV drives business, said: "This is an important step in our strategy for Asia. China is the biggest of our fast-growing markets. We want to have full competence in all areas of the drive business in China in order to serve customers in different industries."
The high efficiency and energy saving benefits of drives technology are important for China's industrial applications, especially when the country is experiencing a shortage of power.
ABB drives have saved 10,000 GWh of power for Chinese customers in the past ten years. "We firmly believe that our energy efficient drive technology will help China in its effort to build a resource-efficient society," said Heinola.
ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve performance while lowering environmental impacts. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 103,000 people worldwide. ABB has a full range of business activities in China, including manufacturing, R&D, sales and service, with 8,000 employees, 25 joint ventures and wholly owned companies, and an extensive sales and service network across 30 cities. To know more about ABB, visit www.abb.com.cn.