Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang visited the headquarters of ABB Group in Zurich on January 26 on his way to attend the Davos World Economic Forum.
ABB CEO Joe Hogan received Vice Premier Li Keqiang and his delegation, and introduced ABB’s development especially its fast growth in China in the recent years.
ABB has been a strong partner for Chinese customers since 1907 when ABB delivered its first steam boiler to China. Over the years, ABB has built up a strong presence in China with 29 companies and a full range of businesses including R&D, manufacturing, engineering service, etc. In the past 6 years, ABB has kept an average annual investment of more than $100 million.
Hogan expressed his thanks to Vice Premier Li for the strong support ABB received in China. He said that President Hu Jintao’s visit to ABB global transformer base in Chongqing in 2007, and Premier Wen Jiabao and Vice Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to ABB’s global switchgear base in Xiamen in 2008 and 2009 respectively during the financial crisis, were highly appreciated by ABB top management and its 15,000 employees in China.
Hogan said ABB will continue to focus on helping its customers increase energy efficiency, grow industrial productivity and reinforce power grid reliability.
Vice Premier Li Keqiang also visited ABB’s Gas Insulated Switchgear company in Zurich. It’s a leading GIS manufacturer, producing the largest GIS equipment in the world. It’s products were also used in many China state projects before all types of GIS products were fully localized in China today.
ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve their performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 120,000 people. ABB has a full range of business activities in China, including R&D, manufacturing, sales and services, with 15,000 employees, 29 joint ventures and wholly owned companies, and an extensive sales and service network across 60 cities.