ABB SEES GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES IN ASIA, ESPECIALLY M'SIA

By Samantha Tan Chiew Tieng

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 1 (Bernama) -- Power and automation technology group, ABB Ltd, sees continued growth and opportunities in Asia's power sector, particularly in Malaysia.

Its head of power generation (South Asia), Frenk Withoos, said there was a
big gap in the supply and demand of power in Malaysia and this presented
opportunities for ABB to further tap the market.

"ABB expects the demand for energy will continue to grow in
Malaysia.

"Many businesses have moved to Asia and this has increased the demand for
power generation and distribution to cater to industries such as manufacturing,
oil and gas, petrochemical and cement," he told Bernama in an interview.

Headquartered in Switzerland, the group has a presence in over 100
countries. It has a strong network comprising distributors, wholesalers, system
integrators and other partners.

The group provides power and automation technologies to help utility
and industry customers to improve their performance while lowering environmental
impact.

ABB's portfolio ranges from light switches to robots for painting cars or
packing food, and from huge electrical transformers to control systems that
manage entire power networks and factories.

Withoos said the group saw opportunities in the spending by utility
companies to improve grid infrastructure and industries boost capacity.

He said there was a growing demand for the refurbishment and expansion of
power transmission and distribution infrastructure as well as high-efficiency
industrial automation systems and equipment to improve customer productivity
and reduces environmental impact.

"As new capacities are being added, especially in east Malaysia state of
Sarawak, there are several opportunities in transmission distribution.

"It may involve increasing the number of stations and capacity of the grid,
and maintenance and life cycle management of existing plants.

"Many power plants in Malaysia use our equipment and we are looking for
jobs to help make them more efficient and environment-friendly," he
said.

Withoos said ABB has a strong foothold in Malaysia because the country was
a hub for medium-voltage switchgear manufacturing for South-East Asia and
Australasia.

"Among its export markets are Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Brunei,
Thailand, Laos, Taiwan, Cambodia and the Philippines.

"In Malaysia, among ABB's major clients are Tenaga Nasional Bhd, Sime Darby
Engineering Sdn Bhd, Petroliam Nasional Bhd, Lafarge Malayan Cement Bhd,
Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd, Jaya Jusco, Northport Malaysia Bhd and
Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd," he said.

He said besides serving the local firms, ABB also supplied technologies to
projects in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, India and Vietnam.

Withoos said ABB's business in Malaysia has grown quite a bit over the last
few years.

"Asian orders recorded double-digit growth in the third quarter of this
year," he said.

He said ABB Malaysia would continue to tender for projects in order to
retain its strong presence in the region.