Power technology and automation group ABB reported an end to its almost two-year decline in order intake by posting a small increase in new business on Wednesday and forecasting that 2017 would likely be dominated by market uncertainty.
The maker of products ranging from transformers to industrial robots said orders - an indicator of future profit - increased 0.2 percent to $8.277 billion in the three months ended Dec. 31 from the same period a year earlier.
The figure, which beat the average estimate of $8.129 billion in a Reuters poll of analysts, marked an improvement from the $7.53 billion in the previous quarter. That marked ABB's weakest period for orders in nearly seven years, when customers waited on the sidelines while ABB decided whether to keep its power grids business.
"We delivered growth in the fourth quarter, driven by the strong performance of Power Grids, in a continued tough market," said Chief Executive Ulrich Spiesshofer in a statement.
A slew of projects worth $842 million, including one to provide an 1,800 km power link connecting southern and central India, helped reverse the recent order decline.
Base orders were 1 percent lower than a year earlier. These orders, which are worth less than $15 million, give a picture of the underlying health of ABB's business.
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