11-09-2009 09:21 Swiss ABB banks on emerging markets growth
Name Letzter Veränderung
ABB LTD N 21.60 0.10 (0.47 %)
SIEMENS 64.61 -0.04 (-0.06 %)
SCHNEIDER SA ORD 70.18 0.18 (0.26 %)
AREVA ORD 416.50 0.85 (0.20 %)

ZURICH, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Swiss engineering group ABB AG , facing weak demand due to the economic slump, is looking to emerging markets for future growth, the group said ahead of an investor event in Zurich on Friday.

The seller of power equipment to utilities and oil and gas companies said around 75 percent of its growth in the last five years had come from emerging economies and this trend was likely to continue.

'Steadily rising electricity demand, the rapid rebounds of the emerging market economies and the need to feed renewable power into existing grids require solutions,' Chief Executive Joe Hogan said in a statement.

ABB is the world's biggest supplier of transformers for electricity grids and is well placed to benefit from heavy investment in China and India in power infrastructure.

But the group is grappling with waning demand from its customers who are hesitating about spending on equipment and has said it is hard to predict how demand will develop in the second half of this year.

ABB, which competes with Germany's Siemens AG and France's Areva SA in electricity transmission and distribution equipment, is looking to cut costs by $2 billion by the end of 2010.

ABB has benefited from the replacement of ageing power systems in Europe and the United States and sees further growth also coming from a push to improve energy efficiency.

'Awareness that energy prices will rise over the long term, combined with the need to cut costs to weather the current downturn, are driving industries to improve the efficiency of their energy consumption and efficiencies,' Hogan said.

the world needs enrgie and ABB certainly will "improve the shining hour"!

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