ABB plans expansion in US

According to Reuters ABB is counting on continued growth in demand for industrial robots from automotive and other sectors, such as the food and beverage industry, Spiesshofer said.

Spiesshofer has been reshaping ABB’s portfolio of businesses through acquisitions and divestitures for the past four years. He declined to comment on whether he is discussing the acquisition of GE’s industrial solutions business

ABB is scouting for potential acquisitions in certain areas, such as planning software, and those would likely be smaller deals, Spiesshofer said.

ABB will be “brutally disciplined” in what it buys, he said, noting that the company “could have afforded” to buy industrial robot maker Kuka last year, but walked away “because the economics did not fit what we want to do.”