"We have achieved a solid performance in a difficult market environment and continued to implement our far-reaching transformation," said Peter Voser, Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of ABB, at the presentation of the 2019 business figures. And the business is not getting any easier: according to Voser, macroeconomic indicators for 2020 point to weaker growth in Europe and the US, while stabilization trends in China could be impaired by the coronavirus outbreak. In his opinion, the global economy will continue to be influenced by geopolitical uncertainties and is expected to grow at a similar level to 2019.

Nevertheless, ABB's sales markets are proving robust overall, although the Group is facing headwinds in some markets. This applies in particular to the automotive industry, mechanical engineering and conventional power generation. In 2019, order intake rose by 1% (stable in US dollars) to USD 28.6 billion. While the Drive Technology and Electrification divisions achieved an increase of 4% and orders in the Industrial Automation division remained stable, they fell by 11% in the Robotics & Factory Automation division. According to Voser, the order trend reflects the slowdown in global economic growth and the strong headwind in the manufacturing industry, particularly in the automotive and mechanical engineering sectors.

Sales improved by 1 percent to 27.9 billion US dollars, supported by the processing of the order backlog. Sales in the Drive Technology and Electrification divisions grew by 4 and 2 percent respectively, while the Industrial Automation division remained stable. By contrast, the Robotics & Factory Automation division recorded a 4 percent drop in sales.

Net profit attributable to ABB fell by 34 percent year-on-year to USD 1.44 billion.

Progress in the transformation

According to Voser, ABB made significant progress in implementing its transformation in 2019. This included the introduction of a new organizational structure with four business units, the spin-off of the electricity grid business and the implementation of the new ABB-OS operating model.

The new operating model was implemented by the end of the year. The regional structures were dissolved and the country structures and a large part of the centrally managed functional activities were transferred to the four business divisions. In this way, the business divisions will now operate in a more customer-oriented manner. At the same time, they have been given extensive powers and the corporate organization has been significantly streamlined.

The sale of the electricity grid business, which was announced in December 2018, is expected to be completed at the end of the second quarter of 2020.

ABB expanded its digital ecosystem in 2019 and announced several partnerships over the course of the year, most recently the cooperation with Ericsson for the joint development of software solutions for robots and smart factories based on 5G technology.