ABB will help improve energy efficiency in Huaxin cement plants in China

Baden, Switzerland, June 27, 2012 – ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, recently signed a contract with Huaxin Cement Co. Ltd. to deliver process optimization solutions for 23 of their plants. Huaxin Cement is an associated company of the Holcim Group (39.88 percent stake) and one of the biggest Chinese cement enterprises.

Huaxin Cement’s headquarters are located in Hubei province, central China, and operates cement plants all over the country. The company strives for clean production, environmental protection and energy efficiency. For this reason, Huaxin was looking for a system that enables effective energy monitoring and reporting. They found the optimal solution in ABB’s Knowledge Manager.

Knowledge Manager is a software solution that helps cement and minerals customers meet production, operational and quality objectives. To run a cement or minerals plant profitably, the operators have to deal with a lot of data. Every decision made has immediate effects on the whole production process. Thus it is essential to survey the processes running and consider all data before making decisions.

The ABB Knowledge Manager facilitates this extensive operation. Process and quality data is collected in real-time from the plant. Users can then access this information in the form of meaningful reports, trends and analyses that help them to make key decisions how to operate and optimize their process. As the software solution is web-based, the operators can access the information exactly where and when they need it. Due to its modular design, Knowledge Manager can easily be adapted to the customer’s current needs and can grow with the user’s requirements.

ABB and Holcim Group Support have a global frame agreement in place under which ABB’s proven and tested Knowledge Manager is implemented as a standard Technical Information System (TIS) on Holcim plants worldwide. ABB has installed TIS in over 80 cement plants owned by Holcim. With this recent order, ABB renews and enhances this strong relationship in the critically important Chinese market. The initial TIS installation is due to take part during 2012, with integration of SAP, energy monitoring and reporting being completed during 2013.

ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve their performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 145,000 people.

For help with any technical terms in this release, please go to: www.abb.com/glossary