Re Contract

ABB Ltd
31 May 2001


               DOW AWARDS ABB 10-YEAR AUTOMATION SYSTEMS CONTRACT
            Technology group lands second consecutive Industrial IT 
                          software and hardware deal

Zurich, Switzerland, May 31, 2001 - ABB and The Dow Chemical Company signed a
10-year global strategic agreement today to infuse Dow's plants with a new
generation of ABB Industrial IT technologies to link operations and enhance
productivity.

'We worked very closely with Dow over the past several months to assess their
operations and identify where there might be room for innovation and advancement
of their process automation technology,' said Dinesh Paliwal, executive vice
president and head of ABB's process industries division.  'We quickly discovered
that linking the operations with open architecture software and hardware would
result in dramatic productivity and efficiency improvements.'

Paliwal said ABB assigned a devoted team of scientists, engineers and sales
people to analyze and assess Dow's complex and high-tech operations.  The team
worked closely with Dow at locations around the world, eventually proposing an
integrated solution for linking the myriad plants in Dow's portfolio.  ABB terms
the integration of all these parts 'Industrial IT' or Industrial Information
Technology.

'Dow has been a pioneer in the development and application of process
automation,' said Arnold Allemang, executive vice president, operations, at Dow.
'Historically, we have produced and supplied our own automation platform, known
as the MOD(TM) family of systems, because the commercial marketplace did not
offer a solution that met our needs.  We have made a strategic decision to now
use a commercial offering for our automation needs.

'Dow must have a system providing high operational reliability and
state-of-the-art engineering tools, which are not only critical to maintaining
the high performance of our production facilities but also enable us to explore
new automation frontiers,' continued Allemang.  'We believe that Industrial IT
is the best solution for our needs.  This will allow us to focus our highly
skilled process automation employees on innovative automation techniques,
creating competitive advantage for our businesses.  Additionally, the
connectivity of ABB's system allows us to easily provide the information needed
by our business leaders to excel in our dynamic and challenging business
environment.'

The agreement, said ABB, is designed for 10 years and will be augmented and
built up to suit Dow's needs.  It follows a similar agreement with Visy
Industries, announced by ABB in late April, linking in real time the Australian
pulp and paper company's headquarters, its production lines and corporate
offices throughout Australia and the United States.

Dow is a leading science and technology company that provides innovative
chemical, plastic and agricultural products and services to many essential
consumer markets.  With annual sales of US$30 billion, Dow serves customers in
more than 170 countries and a wide range of markets that are vital to human
progress, including food, transportation, health and medicine, personal and home
care, and building and construction, among others.  Dow has 171 manufacturing
sites in 35 countries and supplies more than 2,500 products.  Committed to the
principles of sustainable development, Dow and its approximately 50,000
employees seek to balance economic, environmental and social responsibilities. 
For further information visit www.dow.com.

ABB (www.abb.com) serves manufacturing, process and consumer industries,
utilities, and the oil and gas sector markets with 160,000 employees in more
than 100 countries.