ABB Saudi Arabia organised a products exhibition titled “Power and productivity for a better world”, in Riyadh in May.

At an official function held at the ABB factory premises in the Second Industrial City in Riyadh, Dr Ahmed Al-Khaleefah, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Water and Electricity, Saudi Arabia, inaugurated the exhibition.
The four-day event was attended by top ABB officials, Middle East and Africa Region Manager, ABB Saudi Arabia Chairman, Country Manager and foreign diplomats.
More than 1,200 customers from various regions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the sultanate of Oman, the UAE and Jordan visited the exhibition in four days.
Speaking after inaugurating the exhibition, Dr Al-Khaleefah lauded ABB Saudi Arabia’s initiative for organising such a novel exhibition.
He said that this exhibition will greatly contribute to emancipate latest technical information to the industrial sector in Saudi Arabia.
The electric power demand in the Kingdom is increasing manifold every year, he further added and praised the role ABB played in the development of the Kingdom’s electrical network.
He was briefed on various ABB products on show by exhibitors from ABB companies world over.
He also toured the production areas of the ABB Electrical Industries Co Ltd and ABB Automation Co Ltd.
Dr Abdullah Saleh Al-Awaji, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Water and Electricity, also visited the exhibition.
A wide range of utility, power and automation products from ABB companies around the world were displayed at the exhibition.
Alongside the exhibition, experts from ABB group conducted live seminars and presentations on products, the latest innovations in the fields of power and automation technologies.
Visitors from various companies and major customers in Saudi Arabia, such as Aramco, Sabic, SWCC, Saudi Electricity Company, and major contractors and customers from other GCC countries attended the seminars.
These seminars provided an opportunity for the customers to get to know the latest technical know-how about ABB worldclass products.
As part of the exhibition, the organising committee arranged daily tours of ABB Electrical Industries Co Ltd and ABB Automation Co Ltd manufacturing facilities for the visitors.
The exhibition provided an excellent venue for the customers to interact with experts ABB experts from Saudi Arabia and overseas.
Addressing the newsmen on the sidelines of the exhibition, Samir Brikho, ABB Group Executive Committee member, said that ABB has more than 20 per cent market share on a worldwide basis.
“In Power Systems, we have four parts, namely, the power generation, power grid, network control for communication and substations. In all these areas ABB has more than 20 per cent market share worldwide, mainly in substations,” he said and added that in the Gulf and in Saudi Arabia ABB has been active in all these areas.
“Today, ABB has a local set up for manufacturing in Saudi Arabia, Dubai and in Egypt, and we are able to serve the market locally. Not only that we have been moving the know-how to Saudi Arabia, we are now developing new things from Saudi Arabia for the Gulf region. We have already started to manufacture and develop new products;” Brikho said.
“In automation business, we have three areas and we serve the industries, oil and gas business. We also encourage utilities to use latest technology in order to reduce the load on the environment,” he added.
Brikho said that out of about 104,000 employees around the world, ABB Saudi Arabia today employs nearly 900 people and more than 30 per cent of them are Saudi citizens.
“We pick up the best students out from the local universities to keep the competition very high. We give them best training inside the Kingdom and abroad. We are now setting up a training center in the Kingdom, which is going to be the best technology training center in the Kingdom.
“Also, ABB Saudi Arabia is in discussions with the local universities to enhance the training program for Saudi students.”
The ABB management foresees more opportunities ahead for ABB in the Kingdom as the oil sector is booming and the Saudi market is expanding faster.
The entry to the exhibition area was strictly monitored by special security personnel hired for the occasion as visitors included top government officials from various ministries and VIPs from abroad.
However, extra care was taken for the visitors to feel cozy and comfortable inside the venue to visit each stall.