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China's oil, gas and petrochemical industries are growing at double-digit percentages, with a need to meet increased demands.

And Swiss-based ABB, a leading power and automation technology group, is focused on leading the pack.

ABB has announced the formation of a combined products and oil, gas and petrochemical business unit, to focus on increased activity in China.

"We see China with the greatest potential in the oil, gas and petrochemical segment," says Tobias Becker, head of Process Automation Division and North Asia and China senior vice-president of ABB. "China has been a positive participant with a total investment in past years of $56 billion, the second most in the world, only behind Qatar with $57 billion and far ahead of the third, Canada, with $41 billion."

ABB is a leading player in the industry with plenty of experience ranging from North America, Europe, Africa, and South America to Middle East.

"Now the focus is on Asia, especially China, in which the government has urgent and strict requirements on energy issues," says Becker.

Accordingly, ABB is reinforcing its team with additional personnel to support the build-up.

"We can never make light of this nation with a oil, gas and petrochemical market sales of over 30 billion yuan every year," Becker says.

ABB's automation division delivers integrated systems for controls, plant optimization and industry-specific application knowledge and services for customers in the oil and gas, power, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, pulp and paper, metals, minerals, marine and turbocharging industries. They all have demands to be highly automated and energy efficient.

"ABB's complete process automation technology portfolio and industry expertise, combined with our global service, project delivery and engineering resources, provide our Chinese customers the solutions they need to compete successfully," says Becker.

ABB has helped many Chinese enterprises to improve their production efficiency as well lower energy consumption.

According to Becker, ABB has helped Yunnan Aluminum Co Ltd to expand operations and increase its processing capacity by 80 percent.

As the largest electricity consumer on the Yunnan power grid, in recent years Yunnan Aluminum has invested around 3.7 billion yuan in energy-saving initiatives to bring its consumption down to 13,600 kWh per ton aluminum, the lowest level in the domestic industry.

"However, by adopting our solutions as well as products, the company is able to reduce the power consumption by another 1,200 kWh, or seven percent less than the national average for aluminum processing," says Becker.

"Our tailored solutions offer significant energy savings, reducing cost and environmental impact."

Another example is in the power generation segment.

"We also helped a power plant in Shanghai to save 13g coal from per kWh power generation by optimizing its control system and upgrading software. If we load the saved coal per year into train wagons, the train links Shanghai with Taihu Lake, more than 100 km away," says Becker.

In a study by industry analyst ARC Advisory Group, ABB was ranked in the leading global position in the broad process automation market. In this report, ARC includes applied systems, safety systems, AC drives, general motion controls, software and machine safeguarding systems sold to the process industries.

The study forecasts that the total worldwide market for automation systems in process industries, which was $30 billion in 2006, will grow by a compounded annual growth rate of 9.6 percent by 2011, to over $47 billion.

As the global top supplier in key global verticals, such as oil and gas, pulp and paper, in the Asia market, ABB also keeps ahead in the cement and pharmaceutical industries, with sizeable shares in all other process sector.

"As the market share leader, ABB is very strong and has a lot to offer," says Larry O'Brien, research director for process industries with ARC.

"ABB's continued focus on delivering automation solutions that provide reduced costs, increased productivity, and reduced risk is a good fit with today's increasing focus on business value," he adds.

In China, the ABB process automation division has a strong local presence providing products, engineering, and service for domestic needs, with over 1,200 experts.

Shanghai hosts the company's global centers for metals, and cranes, and the Asia manufacturing location for analyzer houses, which are turnkey systems delivered in China and exported throughout the world.

Recently, China has become a major production hub for high performance materials, downstream petrochemical products, and pharmaceuticals. ABB delivered the first ever control system for a local pharmaceutical client in China that fulfills strict US Food and Drug Administration regulations.

(China Daily 05/03/2008 page4)