ABB pouring $2b into smart technology projects

"We believe that our strategy is fully in line with the needs of the market and of our Chinese customers. With market penetration, we make more of our portfolio available to existing customers - for instance, by localizing products and solutions to better suit their needs," he said.

ABB plans to continuously develop new technologies and solutions for the benefit of Chinese customers, he added. With expansion, "we enter new markets and segments, bringing technologies and solutions to customers that previously did not have access to such technologies".

ABB business hits record high amid upgrading

Growth powers lean and green machine

In the power field, represented by high-voltage direct current technology, ABB has taken an active part in building a smart grid that can efficiently and reliably transfer clean energy from western China to load centers in the east, thus addressing local power demand and substantially reducing carbon dioxide emissions and other pollutants.

ABB has been involved in 19 of 24 domestic HVDC projects. Gu Chunyuan, senior vice-president of ABB Group, and chairman and CEO of ABB China, revealed that the company is discussing further cooperation with China Southern Grid.

In the industrial field, ABB's smart production and manufacturing technologies have helped many customers increase efficiency in production and resource utilization to achieve intelligent upgrading by using industrial robots.

About 80 percent of ABB's robot models and 90 percent of its robots sold in China have been localized, thus making ABB the only multinational corporation to localize the whole value chain for robotics, including R&D, production, sales, engineering and service in China.

In the fields of transportation and infrastructure, ABB has strategically cooperated with Shenzhen BYD Daimler New Technology Co Ltd to provide fast-charging DC technology and solutions.

In 2013, ABB's revenue in China, its second-largest market, grew 7.7 percent on an annual basis to $5.6 billion, 13 percent of its global total of $42 billion.

Gu said the company's business performance saw continued momentum in the first quarter, benefiting from the Chinese government's support for energy efficiency and more companies' active appeals for industrial transformation and upgrades.