Joint Venture

ABB LIMITED
3 September 1999



      ABB Launches US$ 30-million Transformer Joint Venture in China

Zurich, Switzerland, Sept. 3, 1999 - ABB announced today the creation of a joint
venture in China to manufacture power transformers. The new company, called ABB
Zhongshan Transformer Co. Ltd., is ABB's 22nd joint venture in China. Based in
Zhongshan, Guangdong Province, the company employs about 170 people.

Together with its partner, Zhongshan Transformer Co. Ltd., ABB will invest
about US$ 30 million in the company over the next three years. ABB owns 51
percent of the new venture and has full management responsibility.

Under the terms of the agreement, ABB will modernize and upgrade the company's
production facilities, where a wide range of 110 kilovolt (kV) and 220 kV power
transformers will be manufactured for utilities and industrial customers in
China. The plant will have a production capacity of 6,000 MVA, equivalent to
about 70 transformers a year. The total Chinese market for these products is
estimated at about 100,000 MVA. In the longer term, the joint venture aims to
export some production to other Asian markets.

The venture combines ABB's global technology strength with skilled and
experienced local partners to expand ABB's presence on the Chinese power
transmission and distribution market. Including this venture, ABB will now 
employ approximately 5,200 people in China.

ABB  is a globalized technology and engineering company
serving customers in power transmission and distribution; automation; oil, gas,
and petrochemicals; industrial products and contracting; and in financial
services. Power generation customers are served by the joint venture ABB ALSTOM
POWER. The ABB Group employs about 175,000 people in more than 100 countries.