Well positioned to meet demand for energy efficiency, grid reliability and industrial productivity
Beijing, March 9, 2007 - ABB China's orders rose 26 percent and revenues 19 percent in 2006 from the previous year, driven by the country's continuous economic growth and strong demand for technologies to increase energy efficiency, power grid reliability and industrial productivity.
"2006 is another strong year for ABB China in both business and organizational development," said Brice Koch, the new chairman and president for ABB China at a press conference today. He is also president for ABB North Asia.
He said, "our total orders rose to $3.1 billion and revenues $2.8 billion, turning China into ABB's number one market in terms of revenues".
In 2006, ABB moved the global headquarters of its Robotics division and three business units - Marine, Power Electronics and Metal - to China, added a low-voltage generator joint venture in Nanchang, expanded and updated seven existing factories, established eight new sales and service branches, and hired 1,900 new employees bringing the total number of people in China to 11,000.
Koch said the result is in line with the ABB China strategy of keeping 20 percent organic growth, increasing investment and keeping a healthy pace.
Brice Koch, 42, took up the current position from January 2007, replacing Peter Leupp who is now a member of the Executive Committee and head of the global Power Systems division of ABB Group. With a PhD in Material Engineering, Koch started his career at ABB in 1994. He held many senior management positions in different businesses. His last job was head of ABB's global Transformer business unit.
"A major reason for ABB's sustainable growth in China is that it combines business closely with market needs. Our products and systems form strong solutions to ease the strong demand for energy efficiency, power grid reliability and industrial productivity," Koch emphasized.
He noted that ABB's concept "the greenest energy is energy saved" fits well with China who is focusing attention to balance economy and environment.
"I am proud that we have a winning team who is always keen to listen to customers and offer better solutions," he said.
In 2006, ten ABB local companies ranked among the "China top 100 electric suppliers" according to Electric Era magazine. As a top employer in China, ABB was also rated favorite company by university students in Beijing in February on a public recruiting Website - 51job.com.
"China is catching up and sometimes surpassing advanced countries in many industries like metal, ship building, power, oil and gas, auto, thus getting more and more sensitive to quality and technology update. There has been and will be vast room for leading engineering companies like ABB to add values," he said firmly.
In November 2006, the Three Gorges-Shanghai high-voltage direct current (HVDC) power link went into operation, six months ahead of schedule, creating a new world record in the industry. As the key technology supplier, ABB's outstanding contribution was highly appreciated by the China State Grid. ABB was also a strong contributor to key national projects including the South to North Walter Diversion, Olympic Games projects, Qinghai-Tibet Railway, etc.
"Being the number one market for ABB, we will keep expanding our local facilities, bringing in more technologies and speeding up local innovations," said Koch. "ABB has worked with China for 100 years since 1907, and we are confident to prolong this win-win cooperation far into the future," he added.
On February 15, ABB Group released its 2006 annual results in Zurich. Net income rose 89 percent, orders rose 22 percent to $28 billion and revenues increased 11 percent to $24 billion. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) rose 45 percent, and ABB reported a strong improvement in cash flow and in the order backlog, providing a good start to 2007.
The group result shows that ABB did very well in all regions worldwide. In addition to the China growth, its fastest growing markets are the Middle East, central and eastern Europe and India, with order growth up 54 percent, 49 percent and 39 percent respectively.
ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 108,000 people worldwide. ABB has a full range of business activities in China, including R&D, manufacturing, sales and service, with 11,000 employees, 25 joint ventures and wholly owned companies, and an extensive sales and service network across 38 cities. To know more about ABB, visit www.abb.com.cn.