ABB Ltd (ABB) operates as a technology leader in electrification and automation.
The company's solutions connect engineering know-how and software to optimize how things are manufactured, moved, powered, and operated.
The company operates in approximately 100 countries across three regions: Europe, the Americas, and Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
Businesses
The company operates through four business areas: Electrification, Motion, Process Automation, and Robotics & Discrete Automation.
M...
ABB Ltd (ABB) operates as a technology leader in electrification and automation.
The company's solutions connect engineering know-how and software to optimize how things are manufactured, moved, powered, and operated.
The company operates in approximately 100 countries across three regions: Europe, the Americas, and Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
Businesses
The company operates through four business areas: Electrification, Motion, Process Automation, and Robotics & Discrete Automation.
Markets
The company is focused on creating superior customer value through the company's comprehensive, modular offering, combining traditional products and services with software-enabled products and systems, as well as digital services and software that the company sells both separately and combined as scalable solutions.
Industry Market
Approximately half of the company's revenues are derived from customers within the industrial segment where the company serves production facilities and factories all around the world, from process industries, such as oil and gas, pulp and paper as well as mining, to discrete industries, including automotive, food and beverage and consumer electronics. Demand for the company's electrification and automation offerings with embedded digital solutions increased as the energy crisis and tight labor markets served as a prominent reminder to companies of the importance of energy efficiency and flexibility in automated production. This has accelerated customer demand for the digital services and solutions the company offers.
Transport & Infrastructure Market
Approximately one-third of the company's customers operate in the transport & infrastructure market.
Utilities Market
The company delivers solutions mainly for distribution utilities and renewables customers, while continuing to service conventional power generation customers with the company's control and automation solutions.
The company serves its customers through its operating divisions, which are included in the company's business areas.
Electrification Business area
Electrification provides leading electrical distribution and management technologies, solutions and services to electrify the world in a safe, smart and sustainable way. The portfolio includes medium- and low-voltage electrical components, switchgear, digital devices, enclosures, and circuit breakers, among others. With the company's products, solutions and services, the company collaborates with customers to improve power delivery and security, enhance energy management, efficiency and operational reliability, as the company seeks to achieve a low carbon society.
The Electrification Business area delivers products to end customers through a global network of channel partners and end customers. More than half of the Business area's revenue is derived from distributors and approximately a quarter is derived from direct sales to end-users. The remaining revenues are generated from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracting companies, system integrators, utilities and panel builders. The proportion of direct compared to channel partner sales varies by segment, product technology and geographic markets.
Customers
The Electrification Business area serves a wide range of customer segments, including residential, commercial and industrial buildings, utilities, oil and gas, chemicals, data centers, renewables, food and beverage, transport and infrastructure, among others.
From some of the world's tallest buildings to the busiest airports, the Business area's products and solutions cover a wide range of applications and business segments.
Products and Services
As of December 31, 2023, the Electrification Business area's products and services are delivered through five operating divisions. The Business area divested its Power Conversion Division in July 2023, which designed, developed, and manufactured end-to-end power conversion solutions for mission-critical applications in the telecommunications, data center, and industrial sectors.
The Distribution Solutions Division facilitates the efficient and reliable distribution, protection and control of power by improving electric power quality while strengthening the resilience of the grid. The Division offers segment-specific products and solutions that largely serve utilities, industry and infrastructure segments, often providing the requisite medium-voltage link between high-voltage transmission systems and low-voltage users. With ABB Ability enabled connected solutions at its core, the offering includes medium-voltage air- and gas-insulated switchgear (1 to 66 kilovolts), indoor and outdoor circuit breakers, reclosers, fuses, contactors, relays, instrument transformers, sensors, motor control centers, as well as low-voltage switchgear for the ANSI standard markets.
The Smart Power Division provides energy distribution solutions for data centers, industrial and manufacturing plants, critical infrastructure and commercial buildings.
The Division's technical teams work closely with industry partners, delivering advanced solutions that support rapid growth, energy transition, and sustainability objectives. The Division's portfolio includes industrial circuit breakers, low-voltage systems, motor starting applications, and safety devices like switches and relays. Its Power Protection unit supports the world's largest data center companies with advanced energy-efficient UPS solutions. The Division's ABB Ability Energy Manager provides a scalable, easy-to-use platform that helps organizations save energy and reduce CO 2 emissions.
The Smart Buildings Division enables optimization of energy efficiency, safety, security and comfort for any building type, through new installations or retrofit solutions. The Division offers integrated digital technologies to control HVAC, lighting, shutters, and security, in addition to energy distribution solutions including DIN rail products, enclosures and emergency lighting through to industrial plugs and sockets and conventional wiring accessories, accommodating for single family homes, multiple dwellings, commercial buildings, infrastructure and industrial applications. The Division's highly innovative technologies and digital solutions serve rising global demand among real estate developers, owners, and investors for smart building technologies that optimize energy distribution and building automation. The scalable solutions aim to deliver significant sustainable and financial benefits, meeting social and environmental demands, while being able to address even the most complex of customers' carbon reduction strategies.
The Installation Products Division helps manage the connection, protection and distribution of electrical power from source to socket. The Division's products are engineered to provide ease of installation and perform in demanding and harsh conditions, helping to ensure safety and continuous operation for utilities, businesses and people around the world. The Commercial Essentials product segment includes electrical junction boxes, commercial fittings, strut and cable tray metal framing systems for commercial and residential construction. The Premier Industrial product segment includes multiple product lines, such as Ty-Rap cable ties, T&B Liquidtight Systems protection products, PVC coated and nylon conduit systems, power connection and grounding systems, and cable protection systems of conduits and fittings for harsh and industrial applications. The Division also manufactures solutions for medium-voltage applications used in the utility market under its marquee brands, including Elastimold reclosers and switchgear, capacitor switches, current limiting fuses, Homac distribution connectors, Hi-Tech Valiant full-range current limiting fuse for fire mitigation, faulted current indicators and distribution connectors, cable accessories and apparatus with products for overhead and underground distribution. Manufacturing includes made-to-stock and custom- made solutions.
The Service Division partners with the company's customers to improve the availability, reliability, predictability and sustainability of electrical products and installations. The Division's extensive service portfolio offers product care, modernization, and advisory services to improve performance, extend equipment lifetime and deliver new levels of operational and sustainable efficiency. The company helps customers keep resources in use for as long as possible, extracting the maximum value from them, and then recovering and regenerating products and materials at the end of their useful life.
Sales and Marketing
Sales and marketing is generally conducted within the divisions in the Electrification Business area. This enables the divisions to manage their respective end-to-end activities and create demand across all channels, products and solutions.
Where necessary, the divisions work together on joint services, such as the management of accounts, channels, and segment-sales, engaging in a range of promotional activities, both internal and external.
Competition
The Electrification Business area's principal competitors vary by product group and include Atkore, Chint, Eaton, Hager, Hubbell, Legrand, LS Electric, Mitsubishi Electric, nVent, Panasonic, Schneider Electric, Siemens, and Vertiv.
Motion Business area
The Motion Business area provides pioneering technology, products, solutions and related services to industrial customers to increase energy efficiency, improve safety and reliability, and maintain precise control over processes. The portfolio includes motors, generators and drives for a wide range of applications in all industrial sectors.
The Motion Business area designs, manufactures and sells drives, motors, generators, and traction converters. Building on long-standing experience in electric powertrains, the Business area combines domain expertise and technology to deliver the optimum solution for a wide range of applications for a comprehensive range of industrial segments. In addition, the Business area, along with its channel partners, has an industry leading global service presence.
Customers
The Motion Business area serves a wide range of customers in different industrial segments such as pulp and paper, oil and gas, metals and mining, food and beverage, HVAC, water and wastewater, transportation, power generation, marine and offshore.
Products and Services
The Motion Business area's products and services are delivered through seven operating divisions. The Drive Products Division serves the industries and infrastructure segments with world-class drives and programmable logic controllers (PLC). With its products, global scale and local presence, the Division helps customers to improve energy efficiency, productivity and safety.
The System Drives Division is the market leader in high-power, high-performance drives, drive systems and packages for industrial process and large infrastructure applications, and a leading supplier of power conversion equipment for renewable energy and other applications. The Division offers global support to help customers, partners and equipment manufacturers with asset reliability, performance improvement and energy efficiency in mission critical applications.
The Service Division serves customers worldwide by maximizing uptime, extending product life cycle and enhancing the performance and energy efficiency of their electrical motion solutions. The Division is leading the way in digitalization by securely connecting motors and drives, increasing operational uptime and improving efficiency. The services offered make the difference for the company's customers and partners every day by helping keep their operations running profitably, safely and reliably.
The Traction Division is a recognized leader in onboard propulsion technologies that drive innovation in rail, bus, and industrial vehicle electrification. A comprehensive range of high-performance and full lifecycle managed propulsion, auxiliary and energy storage solutions help improve energy efficiency and contribute to making transportation more sustainable.
The IEC Low Voltage Division is a technology leader delivering a full range of energy-efficient low voltage motors, including ultra-efficient solutions such as IE5 SynRM (synchronous reluctance motors). Through a global footprint, domain expertise and rugged designs, the Division provides reliable technology that improves efficiency and productivity even in the most demanding applications. The Large Motors and Generators Division offers a comprehensive product portfolio of large AC motors and generators. The Division's induction, synchronous and special design motors and synchronous generators 22 power critical applications across industry, infrastructure and marine transportation.
The NEMA Motors Division is a marketer, designer and manufacturer that offers Baldor-Reliance industrial electric motors, primarily in North America. The Division focuses on quality, reliability and efficiency to provide a comprehensive offering of NEMA motors in the market across most industrial segments and applications.
Sales and Marketing
Sales are made both through direct sales forces and through channel partners, such as distributors and wholesalers, as well as installers, OEMs and system integrators. The proportion of direct sales to end users compared to channel partner sales varies among the different industries, products and geographic markets.
Competition
The principal competitors of the Motion Business area include Schneider Electric, Siemens, Toshiba, WEG Industries, Wolong and Danfoss.
Process Automation Business area
The Process Automation Business area provides a comprehensive range of integrated automation, electrical and digital systems and services for customers in the process, hybrid and maritime industries. These offerings, coupled with deep domain knowledge in each end market, help to optimize productivity, energy efficiency, sustainability and safety of industrial processes and operations.
The Business area's offering can be grouped into two categories, with approximately half of the offering related to solutions for new and brownfield projects and half related to service, mainly for the existing installed base. Process Automation also integrates offerings from the Electrification, Motion and Robotics & Discrete Automation Business areas into its projects. The Business area's offerings are sold primarily through its direct sales force with a smaller share through partners and distributors.
Customers
The Process Automation Business area's end customers include companies across process, hybrid and maritime industries. These industries include oil, gas, chemicals, mining, metals, cement, pulp and paper, pharmaceuticals, battery manufacturing, food and beverage, power generation, water, marine and ports.
Products and Services
The Process Automation Business area offering includes an extensive portfolio of products, solutions, digital applications and services for the control of the simplest to the most complex and critical industrial processes and infrastructure. These systems can link various process and information flows, allowing customers to manage and control their entire production process based on real-time information.
The Business area's automation offering includes the distributed control system (DCS) ABB Ability System 800xA, which is also an electrical control system, a safety system and a collaboration enabler with the capacity to improve engineering efficiency, operator performance and asset utilization. Other control solutions include Symphony Plus (designed to address automation needs of the power and water industry segments) and the Freelance DCS solution. Components for basic automation solutions, process controllers, I/O modules, panels, and Human Machine Interfaces (HMI) are available through the Compact Product Suite offering. The product portfolio is complemented by a suite of ABB Ability Advanced Digital Services and by ABB Care, a subscription-based lifecycle management program that provides services to maintain and continually advance and enhance ABB's distributed control systems and optimize customers' lifecycle costs. The ABB Ability Genix Industrial Analytics and Artificial Intelligence Suite unlocks greater value by contextualizing and integrating data from IT, engineering, and operations systems to provide deep, meaningful and actionable insights. The portfolio is complemented by a range of industry-specific applications in each division.
As of December 31, 2023, the Process Automation Business area's products and services are delivered through four operating divisions.
The Energy Industries Division serves a wide range of industrial sectors, including hydrocarbons, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, power generation and water. With its integrated solutions that automate, digitalize and electrify operations, the Division is committed to supporting traditional industries in their efforts to decarbonize. The Division also supports the development, integration and scaling up of new and renewable energy models. The Division's goal is to help customers adapt and succeed in the rapidly changing global energy transition. Harnessing data, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), the Division brings over 50 years of domain expertise delivering solutions designed to improve energy, process and production efficiency, as well as reduce risk, operational cost and capital cost, while minimizing waste for customers, from project start-up and throughout the entire plant lifecycle. The Process Industries Division serves the mining, minerals processing, metals, cement, pulp and paper, battery manufacturing, and food and beverage, as well as their associated service industries. The Division brings deep industry domain expertise coupled with the ability to integrate both automation and electrical systems, increase productivity and reduce overall capital and operating costs for customers.
For mining, metals and cement customers, solutions include specialized products and services, as well as total production systems. The Division designs, plans, engineers, supplies, installs and commissions integrated electrical and motion systems, including electric equipment, drives, motors, high power rectifiers and equipment for automation and supervisory control within a variety of areas, including mineral handling, mining operations, aluminum smelting, hot and cold steel applications and cement production. The offering for the pulp and paper industries includes control systems, quality control systems, drive systems, on-line sensors, actuators and field instruments. Digitalization solutions, including collaborative operations and augmented reality, help improve plant and enterprise productivity, and reduce maintenance and energy costs.
The Marine & Ports Division serves the shipping and ports industries through its extensive portfolio of integrated systems and solutions that improve the flexibility, reliability and energy efficiency of vessels and container terminals. By coupling power, propulsion, automation, marine software and services that ensure maximum vessel uptime, the Division is well positioned to help the marine industry to achieve its decarbonization targets while improving the profitability and sustainability of the company's customers' business throughout the entire lifecycle of vessels. With ABB Ability Marine software solutions and ABB Ability Collaborative Operations Centers around the world, shipowners and operators can run their fleets at lower fuel and maintenance costs, while improving crew, passenger and cargo safety, as well as overall productivity of their operations. Further, the Division delivers automation, electrical systems and digital solutions for container and bulk cargo handling, from ship to gate. These solutions help terminal operators meet the challenge of larger ships, taller cranes and bigger volumes per call, and make terminal operations safer, greener and more productive.
The Measurement & Analytics Division is among the world's leading manufacturers and suppliers of smart instrumentation and analyzers, working at the heart of industrial digital transformation. The Measurement & Analytics Division's portfolio consists of analyzers measuring compositions of gases and liquids; instrumentation measuring process variables, such as temperature, pressure, flow, and level; force measurement solutions measuring parameters, such as flatness, thickness, and tension; and advanced digital solutions for device management, device health check and predictive maintenance. The Measurement & Analytics Division serves key industries, such as oil and gas, chemical, water and wastewater, power, hydrogen, batteries, as well as the marine industry. The Division enables the optimization of industrial processes by providing and analyzing data collected from sensing and smart measurement devices. Parameters such as emission levels and production inputs are measured by providing 'before' and 'after' values, enabling efficient operations and environmental sustainability through measurement.
Sales and Marketing
The Process Automation Business area's sales are primarily made through its direct sales force, as well as third-party channel partners, such as distributors, system integrators and OEMs. The majority of revenues are derived through the Business area's own direct sales channels.
Competition
The Process Automation Business area's principal competitors vary by industry or product group. Competitors include Emerson, Honeywell, Schneider Electric, Siemens, Siemens Energy, Yokogawa, Endress + Hauser, Kongsberg and Valmet.
Robotics & Discrete Automation Business area
The Robotics & Discrete Automation Business area provides robotics, and machine and factory automation including products, software, solutions and services. Revenues are generated both from direct sales to end users, as well as from indirect sales mainly through system integrators and machine builders.
Customers
The Robotics & Discrete Automation Business area serves a wide range of customers. The main customers are active in industries such as automotive, machine building, metalworking, electronics, food and beverage, and logistics. They include end-users, such as manufacturers, system integrators and machine builders.
Products and Services
The Robotics & Discrete Automation Business area's products and services are delivered through two operating divisions. The Robotics Division offers a wide range of products, solutions and services, including robots, autonomous mobile robots, robotics application cells and smart systems, field services, spare parts, digital services, engineering and operations software. This offering provides customers with increased productivity, quality, flexibility and simplicity for operations, e.g. to meet the challenge of making smaller lots of a larger number of specific products in shorter cycles for today's dynamic global markets and coping with increasing uncertainty. Robots are also used in activities or environments, which may be hazardous to employee health and safety, such as repetitive or strenuous lifting, dusty, hot or cold rooms, or painting booths and can help customers address labor shortages. Robotics solutions are used in a wide range of segments from automotive OEMs, automotive suppliers, electronics, general industry, consumer goods, food and beverage, and warehouse/logistics center automation. They are increasingly deployed in service applications for life sciences care, restaurants and retail. Typical robotic applications include welding, material handling, machine tending, machining, painting, picking, packing, palletizing and assembly.
The Machine Automation Division offers integrated automation solutions based on programmable logical controllers, industrial PCs, servo motion, industrial transport systems and machine vision. It also provides software for engineering and optimization. The range of solutions are mainly used by machine builders for various types of series machines, e.g. for plastics, metals, printing and packaging.
Sales and Marketing
Sales are made both through direct sales, as well as through third party channel partners, such as system integrators and machine builders. The proportion of direct sales compared to channel partner sales varies among the different industries, product technologies and geographic markets.
Competition
Competitors of the Robotics & Discrete Automation Business area vary by offering and include companies, such as Fanuc, Kuka, Yaskawa, Epson, Dürr, Stäubli, Universal Robots, Rockwell Automation, Siemens, Mitsubishi Electric and Beckhoff.
Corporate and Other
Corporate and Other includes core headquarter functions, real estate activities, Corporate Treasury, functional shared services for human resources, finance and information services, and other minor business activities. Certain strategic investments managed by ABB Technology Ventures are also included in Corporate. The remaining activities of certain EPC projects which the company is completing and are in a wind-down phase are reported as non-core businesses within Corporate and Other. The historical business activities of certain divested businesses are also presented in Corporate and Other. These include the high-voltage cables business, steel structures and certain EPC contracts relating to the oil and gas industry.
In addition, effective January 1, 2023, the E-mobility Division became a separate operating segment and is reported in Corporate and Other for all periods presented. The company operates shared service centers globally through a network of hubs which consist of services in the areas of human resources, finance and information services.
The company also provides services to third parties under transitional service agreements in relation to certain divested businesses, the largest of which is Hitachi Energy (the former Power Grids business). The E-mobility Division is contributing to a zero-emission mobility future with smart, reliable and emission-free electric vehicle charging solutions, including market leading charging hardware, ABB Ability enabled digital services and energy and fleet management solutions. ABB E-mobility offers a leading portfolio of EV charging solutions from smart chargers for the home to high-power chargers for the highway stations of the future, solutions for the electrification of fleets and opportunity charging for electric buses and trucks.
Suppliers
In 2023, the company partnered with EcoVadis, a leading service provider in the ESG domain, to engage with suppliers for GHG emission data collection and supplier education on this topic.
Patents and Trademarks
As of December 31, 2023, the company had a portfolio of approximately 26,000 pending patent applications and granted patents, of which approximately 5,700 are pending applications. This portfolio includes approximately 3,600 utility models and design rights, of which approximately 170 are pending applications. In 2023, the company filed over 650 priority patents, utility model and design applications, each covering a unique invention or unique angle on an invention. Additionally, the company filed approximately 1,900 secondary patents, utility model and design applications, each extending the coverage of a previously filed priority application.
The 'ABB' trademarks and logo are protected in all of the countries in which the company operates.
Regulation
As a reporting company under Section 12 of the Exchange Act, the company is subject to the FCPA's anti-bribery provisions with respect to the company's conduct around the world.
The company's operations are also subject to the 1997 OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions.
Research and Development
In 2023, the company invested $1,317 million on research and development activities in its continuing operations. The company also had expenditures of approximately $55 million on order-related development activities.
History
ABB Ltd was founded in 1883. The company was incorporated in Switzerland in 1999.
