ABB, the world's leading power and automation technology group,
has set a target for its drives business in China for 2008. By then
it wants to have doubled sales and tripled production, company
officials said in Beijing.
Tauno Heinola, president of ABB Beijing Drive Systems Co, said
the company's drives business in China has grown by an average
annual rate of 40 percent during the last 10 years.
"The target is not high. If we maintain the current growth pace
we can achieve the target within two-and-a-half years. There are
still more than three years to go," Heinola told China
Daily.
The drives business involves producing technology that helps
such things as factory machinery save energy.
Heinola said that in order to achieve the target the firm has
invested about US$10 million in a new plant in Beijing that applies
special energy saving technology.
The new facility, which started operations this week, includes
sales, marketing, after-sales support, engineering, research and
development, sourcing, logistics and production facilities.
"This new facility means that any one of several hundred product
variants can be shipped in a few hours," Heinola said.
He added that the new plant plans to serve both the domestic
market and the Asia Pacific region.
"With 10 years of local production, sales, engineering and
service experience behind us, and continuously growing market
demand, we are confident of reaching our targets," he said.
Pekka Tiitinen, head of ABB's global drives business, said:
"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,
Tiitinen said.
Drives are widely used in areas such as metal production,
petrochemicals, air-conditioning, printing and textile
machinery.
Heinola said: "ABB drives have saved 10,000 GWh (gigawatt hours)
of power for Chinese customers in the past 10 years. We believe
that our energy efficient drive technology will help China in its
effort to build a resource-efficient society."
ABB Beijing Drives Systems Co Ltd was established in 1994. The
company is a major supplier of AC and DC drives in China.
(China Daily September 14, 2005)