Beijing, February 27, 2014 - In 2013, ABB China successfully grew to achieve a record high orders and revenue of US$5.6 billion; the company's investment in China over the whole year totaled US$136 million and its cumulative investment in China has reached US$1.8 billion. Despite a mixed business climate and market environment, ABB today announced its solid 2013 full-year performance in China.
Chunyuan Gu, Head of ABB North Asia and China, said: "Following the three business focus areas of the Group - organic profitable growth, business-led collaboration, and relentless execution, in 2013, ABB China delivered a strong performance amid healthy and steady growth in both power and automation businesses."
Chunyuan added: "China's national development strategy now emphasizes quality economic growth as well as green, low-carbon and sustainable development. Under this backdrop, collaborating with local customers, ABB focused on R&D and all-round innovation, using smart technology to solve energy, human resources, space and funding bottlenecks encountered in economic restructuring and industrial upgrading."
By increasing capital investment, ABB has established powerful localized R&D, manufacturing, sales and engineering service capabilities in the country. Over 80% of its sales revenue comes from localized manufacturing, and its business layout has expanded to 109 cities nationwide.
As a global technology leader, ABB has a full range of power and automation offerings, including smart grid and city, smart manufacturing and production as well as smart home and building technologies. To help various industries engage in transformation and upgrading, ABB actively works with customers to develop products and solutions which can fully adapt to local needs, improve energy efficiency and productivity, lower environmental impact and enhance quality hereinafter enhancing competitiveness.
Ultra High Voltage (UHV) power transmission is the core component of a "strong smart grid". ABB has participated in the construction of a number of national key High Voltage Direct Currency (HVDC) transmission projects in China. In 2013, ABB provided converter transformers, DC filter capacitors, converter valves and other core technology products to Sichuan Xiluodu - western Zhejiang ±800 kV HVDC transmission line. The line travels 1,670 km with a transmission capacity of 8,000 megawatt (MW) and is one of the world's largest HVDC transmission lines in terms of transmission capacity. When the project is completed in 2014, it will continuously transport about 40 billion kWh of clean hydropower a year to western Zhejiang.
New energy vehicles are one of the 7 strategic emerging industries strongly advocated by the Chinese government. DENZA is the first electric vehicle from Shenzhen BYD Daimler New Technology Co., Ltd. (BDNT). The DENZA electric vehicle (EV) has an uninterrupted driving mileage of more than 200 km and is one of the first high-mileage EVs in the Chinese market. ABB has a strategic cooperation with BDNT, providing DC fast chargers-together developing the local DC fast charging solutions.
Energy efficiency is an important way to improve the environment and to achieve sustainable development. With its leading smart technologies and products in power and automation, ABB actively helps customers improve their energy efficiency. By the end of 2013, ABB drive products had saved up to 201 billion kWh of electric power for Chinese customers-enough to power a city of 20 million people for 2.5 years. In 2013 alone, the ABB high-efficiency motors helped Chinese customers save 410 million kWh of power, equivalent to reducing approximately 400,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
The wide application of industrial robots is a necessity to realizing smart manufacturing and production. In 2013, ABB provided robotic products and automotive manufacturing solutions to BMW's Tiexi production base in Shenyang. On the BMW assembly line, ABB robots are mainly engaged in handling, gluing and welding work. Meanwhile, ABB also provided robotic automation solutions to Volvo's Chengdu automobile production base, becoming the first robot supplier to provide the water-based adhesive system solution in China. The solution can lower in-car noises and vibrations and significantly reduce the amount of volatile organic compounds used in manufacturing, improving the in-car air quality while creating a quiet, comfortable and healthy driving environment for car owners. In addition, ABB also provided body-in-white and powertrain automated production lines to Changan Ford's Hangzhou and Chongqing plants, effectively improving their automation level and product quality.
In 2013, ABB China's service business kept a strong upward trend. In the past 12 months, ABB added 6 service centers in China, i.e. in Hangzhou, Chongqing, Jinan, Xi'an, Wuhan and Shenyang, bringing the total number of service centers to 9. In addition, ABB also has more than 90 professional service stations and more than 200 authorized service providers throughout the country, forming a multi-level, all-round, fast-responding and fully functional nationwide service network to support its customers' development.
In 2013, ABB China achieved fruitful R&D results and launched several new products. For example, according to local customers' needs, ABB China successfully launched the new-generation 145 kV gas-insulated switchgear (GIS), which features an optimized modular design, easier operation, a 30% reduction in size, and a significantly reduced environment impact; and ABB's Welcome M smart building intercom system, which was developed for the global market, features a modular design, easy installation and maintenance and good compatibility. It can be integrated with building control systems and smart phones, flexibly used in villas, apartments, community buildings and other civil buildings.
ABB also actively upholds its corporate social responsibility: from funding poor college students for 9 consecutive years to disaster relief; from its volunteers teaching people on how use electric applications safely to imparting industrial energy-saving and efficiency-improving knowledge to industries. In the 2013 China Corporate Social Responsibility rating activity organized recently by Southern Weekly, ABB was ranked 6th in "Contributions Made by Fortune Global 500 Companies in China in 2013".
In the 14th list of "China's Top 100 Electric Enterprises" released by Electric Age in 2013, 11 local enterprises of ABB China were recognized. For the 10th consecutive year in a row, ABB China was ranked first in terms of the number of local entities selected into the Top 100 list.
ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve their performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 150,000 people. ABB has a full range of business activities in China, including R&D, manufacturing, sales and services, with 19,000 employees, 37 local companies, and an extensive sales and service network across 109 cities.
