Helping industries in Brazil run leaner and cleaner

For more than 110 years, ABB has been helping industries in Brazil – a Latin American giant of growing economic influence – to run leaner and cleaner. 

Our 1700 employees are engaged in delivering ABB technologies and solutions to vibrant industries including the automobile sector, food and beverage, mining, oil and gas, water and sanitation, pulp and paper and renewable energy.  

ABB’s story in Brazil began when were chosen to supply the electrification system for the Rio de Janeiro Sugarloaf Cable Car, which began operating in October of 1912.

In a country of approaching 217 million people¹, across 8.5million square kilometres and with a GDP of nearly 2.2 trillion USD², Brazil’s growing importance to ABB has led to investments of more than $44m over the past six years and sales of USD 450m in 2023 – a ten percent growth over 2022.

Helping industries in Brazil

Some of the key Brazilian industries in which ABB is engaged include:

Pulp and paper

Since 1980, ABB has worked with Brazil’s largest producer of paper packaging, Klabin, to help it achieve its sustainability goals. Achievement of these will rely on innovative technology to drive efficiency in energy use, energy management and industrial processes.

Smart buildings

ABB’s Mission to Zero™ site – Belo Horizonte – produces circuit breakers to protect homes from short circuits and ‘overcurrent’ events. They’re vital in enabling buildings to adopt smart technology that can reduce their energy use – for example by automatically controlling heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems.

Renewables

As much as 45 percent of Brazil’s energy mix comes from renewables including hydropower and solar, allowing ABB to play a key role in the country’s renewable energy sector. For example, in 2023 we signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of the state of Ceará to develop a hub to produce green hydrogen. Our solutions drive the modernization of transmission and distribution networks to improve energy efficiency and reliability. 

Transportation and mobility

We support Brazil’s public transport electrification projects, such as e-bus charging infrastructure and rail electrification. Meanwhile our partnership with the Graal group will lead to more than 40 ABB fast and semi-fast chargers being installed on forecourts and service stations in five of Brazil’s major states.

Water and sanitation

Our collaboration with Saneago, a sanitation company operating in the state of Goiás, is modernizing drive systems for motors and electric pumps. We have provided a digital solution made up of intelligent sensors, which work together with 15 electric motors and frequency inverters to control speed and optimize energy consumption, enabling savings of more than 6000 MWh per year.

Agriculture

Atilla, a 100% Brazilian specialty coffee roaster manufacturer, have modernized their products by adding ABB technology to deliver perfect process repeatability to their customers. In pursuit of continuous improvement in the development and modernization of their product, Atilla relied on ABB's knowledge and portfolio in automation to develop a solution that would increase reliability and productivity. 

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Footnotes

1.      www.worldbank.org

2.      www.worldbank.org