ABB will add more than $100 million in investments in China this year.

The money will be used to "support the expansion of research and development, manufacturing, sales and engineering services across the complete power and automation product portfolio in China", ABB CEO and CFO Michel Demar said yesterday.

The proposed investment by the leading global power and automation technology group comes on the heels of the Switzerland-based company's sharp increase in investments by another $100 million in its 25 local companies last year. Together, it's already double the company's original plan of injecting $100 million in its Chinese operation between 2004 and 2008.

Having established its office in Beijing in 1979, ABB has so far invested over $820 million in China.

Sustained investment and growth have made China the country where ABB has the maximum number of employees and generates the highest orders and revenues.

"ABB's business in China hit a milestone last year and is now the largest within the group by most measures," said Demar. "China has been the most important market for ABB in all aspects."

ABB said China accounted for 12 percent of its total orders of $34 billion in 2007, ahead of Germany and the US.

"The orders increased 32 percent to $4.1 billion from $3.1 billion in 2006 while revenues rose 20 percent to $3.4 billion from $2.8 billion as ABB continued to introduce its latest technologies to the country," said Brice Koch, chairman and president of ABB China.

"In 2007, these included the high-voltage direct current transmission systems, lightweight and versatile robots, and energy-efficient motor and drive systems."

ABB also accelerated the pace of recruitment in China last year to meet the needs of a rapidly growing business. The number of employees rose by 1,500, or 14 percent, to 12,800, compared with an annual average increase of 1,000 in the past few years.

"Our comprehensive footprint in China and our leading-edge technology are meeting customers' increasing needs for power grid reliability, industrial productivity and energy efficiency," said Koch.

China has also become one of the key sources of materials used in manufacturing by the ABB group. In 2007, ABB's purchases in China crossed $2 billion.

Eleven local ABB companies ranked among China's top 100 electrical enterprises in 2007.