ABB wins five-year Full Service agreement in South Africa

Zurich, Switzerland, Jan. 26, 2012--ABB, the leading power and automation technology group has signed a five-year, ABB Full Service® contract with Nampak Corrugated, to manage maintenance and improve overall efficiency at the company’s Rosslyn Paper Mill in Pretoria, South Africa. Under the agreement, ABB will manage all maintenance operations at the paper mill to improve equipment efficiency and increase production output while reducing operating costs. 62 Nampak maintenance employees transferred to ABB when the contract took effect on December 1, 2011.

Nampak is Africa’s largest packaging company, manufacturing a diverse range of paper, plastic, metal and glass packaging products. The Rosslyn mill manufactures recycled based paper for a variety of corrugated packaging products, supplied by Nampak’s Corrugated operations.

Under the agreement, ABB will manage all maintenance to improve productivity and equipment reliability at the mill, and retain and develop all existing maintenance staff and management. ABB will train the staff in pulp and paper industry-specific predictive maintenance and management practices. In addition, ABB will provide process optimization, energy consulting, equipment lifecycle services at the site, as well as manage all third-party subcontractors and suppliers.

“Partnerships like these not only make business sense in terms of increasing profitability, but where labour is concerned, Full Service agreements preserve jobs and lead to the development of maintenance personnel in world-class practices. So we are pleased to be able to take on another plant, where we will work hand-in-hand to improve efficiencies all around”, said Carlos Pone, CEO of ABB South Africa.

The agreement formalizes a joint vision in which ABB manages maintenance at the Rosslyn facility, while Nampak Corrugated Paper Mills strengthens its strategic focus on growing its core operations.

“We are not only looking forward to improved maintenance processes and practices, but the performance guarantees will ensure the relationship is a true partnership with the parties working closely together to improve operations, and value is added in a much wider context than pure maintenance services”, said Christiaan Burmeister, Managing Director of Nampak Corrugated.

This is ABB’s largest Full Service contract to date in South Africa. The new contract complements more than 100 ABB Full Service relationships with customers in the paper, metals, mining, chemicals, and oil and gas industries worldwide.

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 130,000 people.

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

For more information please contact:
ABB Process Automation Media Relations:
Laura Patrick
Office: +1.585.889.7146
Mobile: +1.585.733.4958
email:laura.m.patrick@us.abb.com