Re Contract

ABB Ltd
9 July 2001


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ABB wins US$ 17-million contract to automate world's 
largest paper machine

Industrial IT key to enabling Papierfabrik Palm in Germany

Zurich, Switzerland, July 09, 2001 - ABB, the global technology company, today
announced it has received an order worth US$ 17 million to install the process
control and instrumentation system in the largest paper machine ever built.

The brain of the giant PM 6 paper machine - to be built by Finland's Metso Paper
Inc. (formerly Valmet) for Papierfabrik Palm GmbH & Co. KG in Germany - will be
based on ABB's Industrial IT technology. The system will include integrated
process, quality and drives control, 100 percent defect detection, online
machinery diagnostics and a real-time data warehouse for information sharing.

'We are very happy to be a part of this major project, which once again
highlights the value and potential of ABB's Industrial IT concept,' said Dinesh
Paliwal, executive vice president and head of ABB's process industries division.
'This is the third major software and hardware order we've won in as many
months.'

ABB will also supply power distribution equipment, motors and drives for the PM
6 paper machine, which is scheduled to be commissioned in October 2002, at
Palm's Worth works near Karlsruhe. ABB will begin work on the contract in
October 2001, for completion by July 2002.

Designed to deliver paper at speeds of 1,800 meters per minute, the PM 6 paper
machine's key product will be semicoated base paper for corrugated board used by
the packaging industry. Demand for lightweight, sturdy, printable paper is
expected to increase as eBusiness gains popularity, and items ordered
electronically are shipped.

ABB'S most recent Industrial IT contracts came from the Dow Chemical Company in
the United States and Visy Industries in Australia.                             
    
ABB (www.abb.com) serves manufacturing, process and consumer industries,
utilities, the oil and gas markets, with 160,000 employees in more than 100
countries.