ABB motors, turbocharging and marine propulsion systems increase shipping energy efficiency substantially
Beijing, October 16, 2007 - ABB, the leading power and automation technology group signed an agreement with Wuhan Kawasaki Marine Machinery Co., Ltd., providing four locally-made AMA series marine motors. Featured with excellent quality and reliability, the motor products will be applied in the main power supply equipments of the ships. This is the third time that ABB provides locally produced marine motors for Chinese market.
In recent years, gratifying progress has been made in Chinese shipbuilding industry. The annual growth rate of the shipbuilding output reaches as high as over 40% in China, which is much higher than that of other countries all over the world in the same period. Ranking the world third for 12 years consecutively, it narrows the gap between itself and the top two, namely Korea and Japan. Currently, the domestic shipbuilding industry aims to make China the world's largest shipbuilding country by 2015.
Marine industry has long been one of ABB's core markets. Over dozens of years, ABB has contributed a lot to the modern marine design, building and operation with its innovative power and automation solutions. In order to better satisfy the requirements of the Chinese marine industry, ABB established one of its two Center of Competence (CoC) in China, the other one is in Singapore.
All the bid-winning motor products this time will be made locally by ABB Electrical Machines Ltd. situated in Shanghai. Founded at the beginning of 2006, the company manufactures products covering most of ABB's global motor and generator series and at the same time, provides all kinds of imported and domestic high-voltage series products ranging from 100kw to 70mva.
"ABB is very pleased to continuously deepen its cooperation with Chinese marine industrial customers," said Mr. Brice Koch, President of ABB North Asia and President of ABB China. "The rapid development of Chinese marine industry compels the traditional processes and technologies to be improved continuously. Only those power propulsion and automation control systems with high stability, low energy consumption and outstanding performance can truly meet the requirements of high-end users and markets."
"By its rich global service experience and excellent local R&D and production capacity, ABB will ensure the motors to save quite considerable energy during the whole service life for the shipowner." added Brice Koch.
In addition to the electricity power system, ABB's marine propulsion system and turbocharging solutions are also widely used in modern shipbuilding, which makes active contributions to the development of Chinese modern shipbuilding industry.
In as early as 1990, ABB introduced the world's first Azipod® electronic POD propulsion system. This unique patented technology is still world leading today. Compared with the conventional propeller, it can save 10%-15% fuel. ABB Azipod® system is also adopted in "No.83 China naval supervision", which is China's first domestically designed 3,000t scientific survey ship with compact electronic POD propulsion device.
ABB's turbocharging solutions are also worldwide leading on large diesel engines for marine application. The ABB turbochargers help to increase the output power and efficiency of large diesel engines and to fulfil the increasingly stringent emission standards. The dedicated global service network supports customers for the reliable and energy-efficient operation throughout the turbochargers lifetime.
ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 111,000 people worldwide. ABB has a full range of business activities in China, including R&D, manufacturing, sales and service, with 12,000 employees, 25 joint ventures and wholly owned companies, and an extensive sales and service network across 38 cities. To know more about ABB, visit www.abb.com.cn.