ABB CEO Morten Wierod said India is currently the company’s fourth-largest market globally.

ABB CEO Morten Wierod said India is currently the company’s fourth-largest market globally, but the target is to move it to the third position before 2030. He added that the internal mandate to the team is to achieve this milestone earlier than planned, reflecting ABB’s strong commitment and confidence in the Indian market. By Shereen Bhan Global engineering and technology major ABB is entering 2026 with strong confidence, backed by its largest-ever order book and sustained demand for electrification and automation solutions. Speaking to CNBC-TV18 on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Morten Wierod, President & CEO of ABB, said the company’s growth is being driven by the powerful and long-lasting trend of electrification and automation across industries and infrastructure. He stressed that electrification is not a short-term cycle but a multi-decade opportunity that could extend well beyond 2050, as grids remain underinvested and customers push for more productive and sustainable operations. The company is benefiting from customers seeking solutions that improve competitiveness while also lowering emissions. Wierod highlighted examples from India’s steel industry, where companies are shifting from coal-based processes to electric arc furnaces — a move that improves cost efficiency, boosts competitiveness against cheap imports, and reduces emissions at the same time. These are edited excerpts of the interview. Q: Let me start by asking you, I believe you are tapping into R.E.M to find and make sense of the world as we know it? A: I like music and I have been asked, how does the world look like? It reminds me of the R.E.M song - it's the end of the world as we know it. But I feel fine, and I do feel fine. Q: That is exactly what I was saying, that CEOs can no longer wait around to see whether the storm is going to settle or what happens with geopolitics. CEOs have to get on with business and that seems to be the case in the mood here in Davos. Would you agree? A: Yes, absolutely. It's bit strange to think about it. It's six years ago since COVID, but we still talk about it. It's 2026 today and we have so many things every year. When we look back, you say, that was a strange year, but I don't think 2026, will be any different and but we get used to it - so that this is kind of the new normal. We are good at crisis management at ABB, the company I run, but I think in general, everybody - governments or customers at our place as well, we get on with what we control, I think that's the main part. You cannot sit and wait till things to get calm, then you never got anything done. You just need to get on with it. Read Here | Davos 2026 | ABB aims to raise India’s share of global revenues before 2030: CEO Wierod Q: In 2026 what is the outlook is as far as the order book is concerned, global growth and specifically India. How does all of you look for the year ahead? A: First of all, we are going into the year with over the largest order book we ever had in the company, because the trend of electrification and automation is really gaining momentum, and it will continue gaining that momentum in the coming year. This is the electrification of everything. It's not like a little glimpse. It will take even up to 2050, at least, because, as grids are under invested, and customer want to go with more automation and more electrification, because not only it's a more sustainable, but it's also a much more productive, a competitive way to do it. There are some great examples, for instance, in India, where we are helping some our large customers in the steel production, it is how do they get more competitive is go from a coal base to an electric furnace in their production process. That's how you can also remain competitive in the Indian market, also fighting with imports from a cheap steel from China. So, this is one way of dealing with competitiveness at the same time it's a by product, is that it also reduces emission, which is, in my book, a very positive thing. So it's a win, win. And that is why our business is really booming these days, because it's both we help our customer, we say, to become leaner, more productive and cleaner, reduce their emission when, when that go hands in hand, it's an end equation. You don't need to choose one or the other. You get both. Q: Since you are sitting on a record order book are you going to be able to replicate that success in the year ahead or, perhaps even better, it, what are the signs telling you? A: If you're looking into the market of as I say, electrification, especially, it is booming, and it's going to continue to do so because we need more energy. We talked earlier, more about energy transition, and India as a one example, has been really driving that energy transition, where a lot of the new energy coming online is renewable, solar and wind. Especially on the solar side, India has done an amazing job. However, it is not really an energy transition. If you look at the global scale, since 2019 we are using the same amount of electricity being generated from coal and gas and oil as we did in 2019. So the energy transition hasn't even started. All has gone into the energy expansion. That means we need more energy. People are getting, getting out of poverty, getting better quality of life. What you do? You get your own air conditioning unit. All of this takes more energy and this is the same all over the globe. Then on additional that you have more consumption, especially the all the data centres being built, also take up a few percent more of electricity consumption, and that all puts more stress and pressure on the grid. For us a good thing, because that is our business. We are helping utilities getting more power online and getting that grid reliability. We see also today, especially here in Europe, that grid reliability and grid security has been also a bit of a security topic, and therefore having a very strong and resilient grid is kind of a backbone of every society. You can ask people from Spain who had eight hours, the whole country, 60 million people without electricity for eight hours. It was not a pleasant experience to have that. These are some of the trends where you see importance of electricity, importance of the grid. That's why also investments are coming. So, I am very optimistic for our 2026 from an ABB point of view, Q: Similar story, as far as the automation side of the business is concerned. Because you said on the energy side, it’s more energy expansion yet to actually move fully into the energy transition phase. On the automation side, with things like physical AI and so on and so forth. What are the trends that will shape that business? A: We can also use automation, and I talked about also the electricity grid, what we call grid automation, which is also how we use energy. It's not just getting more and more, it's to use it at the right time. This is bit thinking about traffic. There are not really enough cars in the world that we should have traffic jams, but it's because that we all want to go at the same time. And that's the same with electricity. So we can use automation in our grids and in our buildings. Energy management is all grid automation is about how to balance loads that we don't need to heat the hot water at the same time, so we prepare our dinner and wash the clothes at the same time. That goes also the same for industries. We can balance out it. And this is where automation is needed to use electricity smarter, both saving energy but also balancing it, so that we don't put more stress on the grid and our networks than needed. There is where automation play a key role to be able also to reduce some of that stress. So many countries experience today, where grid stability leads to big losses in production and that's, again, one thing that we help our customers to avoid those problems. Q: The robotics division that, of course, is expected to get regulatory approvals and is likely to close this year. Will that mean that you double down on the focus areas that you just outlined, and what will that mean in terms of additional capital deployment, as well as M&A, because you have done a number of bolt-on acquisitions, will M&A continue to drive growth? A: Yes, it will. We are more looking into now with ABB is, as you say, very focused on electrification and automation. Those things also very often go hand in hand. therefore, we look at what are adjacencies that can make that offering even stronger and there is where acquisition comes in. Also especially bolt-on which are kind of nice adjacency to what we do already, or what can strengthen our technology or market access in some places. We are actively looking into new M&A opportunities, both small, mid-size, but also some larger ones and it's really all over the world. India as well, where growth is happening is of course, where we want to invest. And that drives both the organic that means what we are doing in our own capacity. I feel that India, for our operations right now, is a bit of a building site, because it seems like every factory, every campus that we have, having expansion, building new facilities, because we have been through such a great story in India over the last years. And also when we look at ahead of 2030, and even past that, we are very optimistic about the Indian economy, and we have a strong team there who is also able to serve our customers well so we need more capacity. In addition, we think that that could also be used as an export hub out of India to serve many of the neighbouring but also markets outside the region. And that's why we are expanding and double down on India, both with our own organic investment, more technology, more R&D, but more manufacturing. But also looking at, could there be companies that would be a good fit with ABB offering, but also the ABB culture. So that's where we are working on, also in India and also everywhere where there is growth, we are open to that. Q: Quick follow up question on what you just mentioned there, as far as India is concerned, how much do you believe the export opportunity is likely to play out for ABB in the next five years? And what would your message be to Indian stakeholders who are watching you in terms of your expansion plans, your renewed commitment to India and incremental investments? A: The main part, which I always stress in every market where we operate we need to be strong at home, because if you win at home, you can win outside. We are doing very well in the domestic market. That has to be the backbone what we do. But then when you get that scale, you can even do more outside India. And we are doing already today, exports into the Middle East, into Africa, into Latin America, using our Indian facilities. We have a very competitive cost base in India and that's of course, is an opportunity for us as a global company. Q: Where does India figure in the pecking order as far as global markets and global revenue are concerned? A: Today is market number four. My prediction is, and I have said already, now you need to aim at the third spot. And that is the challenge to the team. I said you should be there at least before 2030, I hope it will be earlier. And the commitment from the team is that it should happen before that.

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