Growth powers lean and green machine

Robots made by ABB Group are helping China keep up its rapid pace of urbanization. Photos provided to China Daily

Swiss engineering group to spend $300 million on production plant

The Swiss engineering group ABB says it is looking to double its presence in China to 200 cities at present in the next three years.

Ulrich Spiesshofer, chief executive officer of ABB Group, says the company aims to have 20,000 people working for it in China soon and pursue growth drivers such as energy efficient technologies and infrastructure to increase profits.

At the same time, the company will make additional investment to boost its manufacturing capabilities in China. ABB will spend $300 million over the next five years to set up a production hub for power and low voltage products in the coastal city of Xiamen in Fujian province.

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Since 1992, Xianmen has become one of ABB's largest global business hubs, covering the full value chain of research and development, manufacturing, engineering, sales and services in the low-voltage products and power businesses, Spiesshofer says.

ABB China's shared services, supply chain management and corporate functions, employing nearly 4,000 people, are also located in the city.

Spiesshofer says ABB will continue to seize the opportunities that arise from China's urbanization and industrial upgrading. China's new focus is on quality urban development, as well as green, low-carbon and sustainable growth such as building high-efficiency grid networks and promoting the use of industrial robots, government sources say.

"If we look at the speed of urban development in China, and the way the regulatory environment and infrastructure development comes together, it is a remarkable and unique growth opportunity," Spiesshofer says.

"The planning and perseverance that governments show in building prosperous cities is something that is worth emulating," the CEO says.

With the population in many of China's second- and third-tier cities much larger than those of big cities elsewhere in the world, building ultra-high voltage power transmission networks and new energy vehicle projects, as well as providing more industrial robots, is useful to keep up the pace of urbanization and make the most of the country's manufacturing structure.

Thanks to China's industrial upgrading boom, ABB China's revenue grew 7.7 percent to $5.6 billion last year. The company's cumulative investment in China reached $1.8 billion last year, with $136 million being the actual investment in 2013.