Thabang Mokopanele
20 August 2008
Johannesburg — MULTINATIONAL power and automation technology group ABB SA is investing R400m in a manufacturing facility and offices in SA as its order book rose 40% to R7,5bn for the first six months of this year.
Most of the orders are thanks to Eskom's power infrastructure spending as well as mining, oil and gas projects for Sasol.
CEO Carlos Pone yesterday said 40% of the order book came from SA while the rest was for the continent.
Pone said the investment in the group's manufacturing facility, which will incorporate its energy-efficient building systems, pointed to the confidence the Swiss multinational had in SA.
"The new facilities will have state-of-the-art water recycling systems, all our engineering facilities for power systems and process automation," he said.
ABB, which supplies industrial automation products and systems for protection automation and power electronics, would use the new centre to make medium low voltage switch-gears, assembly lines, robotic service assembly and manufacturing lines for its African markets.
It won a R600m contract this year to upgrade Eskom's Matla power station control and instrumentation. In March, the group won a R149m order from Eskom for a series of capacitor banks at Serumula and Iziko . The project is part of the southern grid-strengthening project in Eastern Cape .
"We have a number of projects in the pipeline with Eskom which we have tendered for ," Pone said.
He said the group was also benefiting from mining industry expansion, strong demand in the construction industry and an increase in large export orders for automation products.
However, Pone said one of the main challenges for the group, which relied heavily on technology, was skills shortage. "One way that we are handling this is through training. We have in the past two years trained 60 graduates and we also bring engineers from overseas to work with our local people for skills transfer," he said.
ABB SA is 80% owned by mother company ABB, while a 20% stake is held by empowerment group Wip Capital, a subsidiary of Wiphold.
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