Partnership Agreement

ABB Ld
13 January 2000


For Your Business Editor

ABB in full-service partnership for Canadian pulp mills

Partnership  to  provide US$ 220 million of maintenance services over five
years; largest ever full-service agreement for ABB

Zurich,  Switzerland, January 13, 2000 - ABB, the global technology company, 
has signed a full service partnership agreement with Fletcher Challenge Canada
Limited (FCCL), of Vancouver, Canada, to service its three Canadian pulp  mills.
  FCCL, major Canadian pulp and paper company, is a majority-owned  subsidiary
of New Zealand-based Fletcher Challenge Paper.

Under the terms of the agreement ABB and FCCL will create a 50-50 partnership to
maintain all of the three mills' assets.  These include all electrical 
equipment, automation sytems, the boilers for process steam, all kraft pulp
processing equipment and pollution control systems. The partnership, to be
called AllWin Technical Services Inc., will employ 380 people.

The pulp mills at Elk Falls and Crofton, both on Vancouver Island in British
Columbia, and at Mackenzie in the interior of the province, produce softwood
kraft pulp and containerboard with a combined annual capacity of approximately
1 million metric tons.

This is the largest-ever full service agreement ABB has undertaken. It reflects
the increasing trend among our industrial customers worldwide to work with
outside experts to obtain the best service and maintenance solutions for their
operations, while they focus on further developing their core  businesses. 
ABB's in-depth industrial expertise as a supplier to a broad range of industries
positions the company well to meet this growing demand.

ABB has targeted the industrial service sector as one of its primary growth
areas.  Service and service-related activities throughout all of ABB's
businesses now represent about 25 percent of ABB's total annual revenues.

ABB  serves customers in power transmission and
distribution; automation;  oil, gas, and petrochemicals; industrial products
and contacting; and in financial services.  Power generation customers are
served  by the joint venture ABB ALSTOM POWER.  The ABB Group employs about
170,000 people in more then 100 countries.

                                    
ABB Corporate Communications, Zurich              ABB Investor Relations
John Fox                                                  Manfred Ebling
Tel: [phone]                                    Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]                                    Fax: [phone]
[e-mail]                        [e-mail]