Recently,
ABB Ltd.
(
ABB
) announced its plan to engage itself in the extension of
transmission substation in the Southern part of Iraq. The contract
has been awarded by the Ministry of Electricity of Iraq and is
valued at about $75 million. ABB's scope of work includes project
management, design, engineering, supply, installation and
commissioning of the substation, including civil works.
The project involves connecting a new 500 megawatt (MW) gas
based power plant as well as smaller power stations through the
400/132 kV (kilovolt) Amara substation to the grid. The power plant
and power stations under consideration are being constructed. The
supplies for the project includes air-insulated switchgear,
transformers, shunt reactors and cables. Further, supply control
and protection systems as per IEC 61850 open communications
standard and related telecommunication equipment will also be
provided by ABB.
With this substation extension, new power generation sources
will be integrated resulting in power supply enhancement in the
region. Further, the grid will become more dependable and the
quality of power will improve. The project is expected to be
completed by 2013.
Moving ahead, the emerging markets will be a significant growth
driver for ABB. Demand in mature markets is also expected to
improve. Customer capital expenditures have increased with the rise
in commodity prices. Increased capacity in some later-cycle
infrastructure-related businesses continues to exist. In many
sectors, price stability has been attained and ABB has increased
its prices to offset rising raw material costs.
However, ABB Ltd's results are likely to be adversely impacted
by macroeconomic weakness as more than 80% of the company's orders
are derived from outside the US. A major competitor of ABB Ltd. is
Siemens AG
(
SI
).
ABB Ltd. is a Zurich (Switzerland) based power and
automation technology company. The company operates in
approximately 100 countries, structuring its global organization
into five regions: Europe, Americas, Asia, the Middle East and
Africa.
Currently, we maintain a Zacks #3 Rank (short-term Hold
recommendation) on ABB Ltd.
ABB LTD-ADR (ABB): Free Stock Analysis Report
SIEMENS AG-ADR (SI): Free Stock Analysis Report
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