Kunda, Estonia, January 23, 2008-- ABB announced today that AS Kunda Nordic Tsement has renewed its ABB Full Service agreement for the technical maintenance of Kunda Nordic’s cement plant in Kunda, Estonia. Under the agreement, ABB will continue to manage Kunda’s maintenance program and perform all work needed to ensure and improve the working capacity of Kunda Nordic Tsement’s machinery. Part of the international HeidelbergCement Group, AS Kunda Nordic Tsement produces construction cements and limestone aggregate and offers port services. The scope of the ongoing ABB Full Service agreement includes analysis of the condition of all of the machinery in the cement plant, as well as diagnostics, preventive maintenance, repairs, efficiency measures and continuous improvement activities.
ABB is will also manage modernization and new automation projects at the plant. The ABB Kunda maintenance center employs 116 people. “Outsourcing maintenance services allows us to focus on our principal area of operations, the cement business,” explained Meelis Einstein, the purchasing manager with Kunda Nordic Tsement. “It is also important that we can control of our maintenance costs, which we are better able to do in a long-term contract with ABB.” The first agreement between ABB and Kunda Nordic Tsement was signed in 1998 and then renewed in 2002.
“Kunda Nordic Tsement is a knowledgeable client; our work together has been a collaborative relationship based on specific targets and open communication,” said Toomas Tamme, Full Service Business Unit manager in Baltic Countries with ABB. “With the know-how we have at the ABB Group and our experience in the local market, we provide world-class maintenance services that help our customers focus on their core business and improve their operations. Our collaborative work with HeidelbergCement Group has achieved significant performance improvements that can be seen in plant efficiency indicators and in the results of the operation audits.” Meelis Einstein says that Kunda Nordic Tsement is very satisfied with the quality of the maintenance services provided by ABB.
“Our relationship with ABB over the years has definitely been a success story; in particular, the performance coefficient of the cement production machinery has really shot up over the last few years,” he said. ABB is the global technology leader in the energy and automation fields, providing its services to infrastructure and industrial companies. Its products help clients minimise the environmental impact of their manufacturing. The ABB group employs 110,000 people in more than 100 countries. ABB has operated in Estonia since 1992 and focuses on the manufacturing of energy products and systems and automation and process automation products.
Its main areas of operation in Estonia are the production of wind generators and electrical boards, the implementation of transmission network and distribution substation projects and the provision of comprehensive maintenance services to industrial clients. In addition to its head office in Tallinn, ABB AS has a low voltage systems plant in Keila, electrical machinery and frequency transformer plants in Jüri, a factory-build substation plant in Maardu and maintenance centers around Estonia.
