ABB Reaches Major Construction Milestone with Huntersville Plant Tower


Exterior structure of 430-foot extrusion tower completed for ABB high-voltage transmission cable manufacturing facility in North Carolina; hiring process well underway.

Huntersville, NC- ABB, the world's leading power and automation technology company, announced today it has reached a major construction milestone for its high-voltage transmission cable factory: the exterior structure of the 430-foot extrusion tower has been completed. The tower is located near the back of ABB's planned 240,000 square-foot facility that will be located at the Commerce Station Business Park off NC Highway 115 in Huntersville.

This concrete tower, which will play an essential part in the manufacturing of transmission cable, stretches 430 feet into the air - approximately one and one-half football fields high. Inside the tower is a vertical extrusion process which is the heart of the facilities operations. The tall tower centers the stranded metal conductor until the hot extruded insulation cools to ensure perfect concentricity of the cable.

The new cable facility will supply high-voltage and extra high-voltage transmission cables, for both AC and DC applications, to carry electric power underground as part of the nation's new "smart grid." The new facility, located in the greater Charlotte metropolitan area, is scheduled for completion in late 2012.

"We continue to move quickly toward our goal of completing a world class, state-of-the-art power transmission cable facility, and this impressive 430-foot extrusion tower is perhaps the first visible symbol of the hard work from our construction teams and our local partners in the Lake Norman region," said Prentis Trickett, ABB manager for the Huntersville plant. "I am proud to say that this milestone has been reached with over 60,000 injury-free man hours recorded."

Hiring Underway

ABB is investing approximately $90 million in the new manufacturing facility, which will employ more than 100 people in various professional and technical fields. ABB will be looking for multi-skilled, experienced manufacturing operators, production area managers and engineers with mechanical or electrical backgrounds. In addition to production, ABB will recruit for other positions such as senior project management, installation technicians, quality and supply chain management professionals.

The recruiting of these resources is well underway, and job opportunities are being posted in the Careers section of ABB's website at www.abb.us/careers and the N.C. Employment Security Commission's website at www.ncesc.com. Currently, ABB has job postings for lead production operator, production planner, process control engineer, design engineer, proposal engineer and supply chain manager. More positions are expected to be posted soon.

ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 130,000 people. The company's North American operations, headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, employ over 18,000 people in multiple manufacturing, service and other major facilities.

For more information, please contact:

Bill Rose

ABB Media Relations

919-807-5743 - office

919-244-4879 - mobile

bill.rose@us.abb.com

www.abb.us

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