Chairman Peter Voser of Swiss power technology and automation group ABB addresses the company's annual shareholder meeting in Zurich, Switzerland, March 29, 2018. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

ZURICH (Reuters) - ABB ABBN.S is pressing ahead with a review of its underperforming businesses and expects a turbulent 2019 amid a slowdown in some markets and China-U.S. trade tensions, Chairman and interim Chief Executive Peter Voser told Reuters.

The Swiss engineering company is in a “heavy-lifting phase”, Voser said, completing the separation and sale of its power grids business to Hitachi, and on Tuesday announcing a deal to quit solar energy inverters.

“There are clear headwinds in some of the end market segments in which we are operating,” Voser said in an interview. “You can see a slowdown in the automotive sector around the globe, which affects the robotics market and we will feel this at some stage as well.”