ABB in China was one of the company’s best performing operations in 2020 and this important market is continuing to grow. There has been strong growth in the country in the first quarter of this year, with an order increase of 34 percent (24 percent comparable). China is ABB’s second-largest market worldwide with more than 90 percent of sales from locally made products, solutions, and services.
A global technology leader, ABB is deeply rooted in China, with a full range of business activities including R&D, manufacturing, sales and services, and 15,000 employees located in nearly 130 cities. Through this infrastructure ABB is helping customers in China to maximize resource efficiency and contribute to a low-carbon future. With a wide range of digital solutions, ABB combines its deep domain expertise with connectivity and software innovation to empower real-time, data-driven decisions for smarter and more sustainable operations.
“China’s journey of ‘carbon emission peak and carbon neutrality’ will create more opportunities for industrial digitalization", says Jiang Haibo, Head of Process Automation, ABB China. “As a global leader in technology, ABB will continue providing cross-disciplinary and integrated digital capability to help customers improve efficiency while reducing emissions and saving resources. ABB is making continuous contributions to the sustainable development of industries and building a low-carbon society.”
Earlier this year, the government of China released its 14th Five-Year Plan for economic and social development and 2035 vision goals, focusing on attaining “high quality growth” and addressing environmental degradation and global climate challenges. China has pledged to peak carbon emission by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. As the world’s second largest economy and largest energy consumer, China has a critical role to play in achieving the 1.5°C scenario of the Paris Agreement.
China is the world’s largest market for renewables and, in 2020, it added 136 GW, with the bulk coming from 72 GW of wind and 49 GW of solar1. The country is also the largest market for electric vehicles with 4.5 million electric cars2. To reach its ambitious carbon targets, China is making significant investments in renewable energy and e-mobility, and it is also investing heavily in energy-efficient technologies which can improve productivity and reduce waste.
The numerous awards ABB received at the China Automation Industry Annual Conference 2021 under the theme of “Innovation and Integration for A New Digital Ecosystem Together” demonstrates the company’s strength in innovation and how it is helping China to reach its goals. ABB won seven awards in five categories, including the “China's Top Automation Enterprises of 2020”, the “Most Influential Engineering Projects of 2020”, the “Most Valuable Solutions”, the “Most Competitive & Innovative Products”, and the “Most Trusted Products in the Automation Industry.”
The ABB Ability™ Mobile Gas Leak Detection System was named one of the “Most Valuable Solutions.” After its debut at the CIIE 2019, this innovative solution has been rapidly deployed in many large gas companies in more than 30 cities of China to detect and evaluate their gas pipeline networks. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, the efficient solution greatly contributed to the safe and reliable operation of gas pipeline networks in urban areas.
Additionally, as one of the three ABB products honored with the award of the Most Competitive & Innovative Products, ABB’s new intelligent electromagnetic flowmeter AquaMaster4 becomes one of the perfect options for intelligent monitoring and control of leakage in urban water supply networks. It combines the Near Field Communication (NFC) technology to provide a game-changing reading and parameter configuration approach, provides extended battery life and higher range ratio, integrates the regular self-check function to ensure long-term and stable measurement accuracy, and can load the ABB narrow band IoT communication module for measurement products to allow more efficient and convenient data transmission.
Looking ahead, ABB will supply and install the complete electrical and automation system for China’s Northern Copper Industry (NCI) new cold rolling mill later this year. NCI is part of the largest producer of raw material copper stock in Northern China. The products will be widely used in aerospace, 5G communications, new energy industries, smart manufacturing and other high-tech application fields.
1 Press release by International Renewable Energy Agency
2 Report by International Energy Agency
