11/4/21 – The Prysmian Group has received a Notice to Proceed for an approximately €200 million contract to supply a submarine power cable system for the Vineyard Wind 1 offshore wind farm that will account for 134 km of power cable.

A press release said that the order is a milestone in the development of the offshore wind farm sector in the U.S. as Vineyard will include 62 wind turbines and will generate 800 megawatts of electricity annually and power over 400,000 homes. Under the contract awarded in 2019, by Vineyard Wind, LLC, a U.S. offshore wind development owned by funds of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and by Avangrid Renewables (part of the Iberdrola Group), Prysmian Group will develop a submarine power cable system project which will deliver clean energy to the mainland power grid.

The Group is responsible for the design, manufacture, installation and commissioning of an HVAC (High Voltage Alternating Current) cable system composed of two 220 kV three-core cables using extruded XLPE insulation. The submarine cables will be produced in Prysmian Group’s centers of excellence in Pikkala, Finland, and Arco Felice, Italy. Installation operations will be performed by Prysmian Group’s state-of-the-art cable laying vessels Cable Enterprise and Ulisse. Delivery and commissioning of the project are scheduled for Q4 2023.

Prysmian will also provide PRY-CAM permanent monitoring solutions, the Group’s breakthrough technology that allows on-line, accurate and reliable in-depth information helping electric assets owners to increase uptime, asset longevity and safety, while reducing maintenance costs and risks.

“The resumption of the vineyard project confirms the acceleration of the United States towards the energy transition,” said Hakan Ozmen, EVP Projects, Prysmian Group. “Prysmian aims at playing a key role in the development and upgrade of power grid infrastructures to support the transition to renewable energy sources in the U.S. We have state-of-the-art cable technology, large production and installation assets, as well as a wide presence and track record in the U.S.”

11/3/21 – Leoni AG has officially opened its fourth automotive wiring plant in Serbia, where the German company is the largest private industrial employer.

A press release said that opening of the plant in Kraljevo, further bolsters Leoni’s position as a high-performance supplier to the international automotive industry. The company to date has invested more than 50 million euros in the plant. The site is not only the biggest Leoni plant in Serbia, it also employs the largest number of people at full capacity (up to 5,000 by the end of 2023). The building covers more than 60,000 sqm, of which 45,000 sqm is the production area, which is now completed. The site is the first new plant built in almost 30 years in the region of Kraljevo and is expected to significantly contribute to the decrease of the unemployment rate, raise the living standard in the area, and accelerate its development pace.

Among those at the official opening were Aleksandar Vučić, the president of the Republic of Serbia, and Predrag Terzić, the mayor of the city of Kraljevo.
During the proceedings, Leoni CEO Aldo Kamoer declared the initiative a success and praised Serbian leaders for making the process a smooth one. “We are grateful for the unbureaucratic and very professional support of the authorities over all these years. We are happy to be able to tap into a large pool of dedicated and motivated employees here. And we are glad that we are contributing to raising the general standard of living in the region with our commitment in recent years. I think that’s what you call a win-win situation.”

Pierluigi Ghione, managing director of Leoni Wiring Systems Southeast d.o.o., said that the investment reflects the company’s commitment to Serbia. “Leoni is clearly focused on growth in this region – offering more job opportunities, expanding its business, becoming the biggest industrial employer in Serbia. What is more important than being the biggest employer is being the best employer. This is not an easy task, but we as one Leoni Serbia Team, together with central and local authorities, are working very hard to achieve this goal.”

11/3/21 – The Marine division of Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) announced that it recently acquired two vessels—the Ile de Molène and the Ile d’Yeu—as part of its strategy to modernize and expand installation capacities for the growing submarine telecommunications market.

A press release said that the two vessels joined the ASN fleet respectively on May 7, 2021, for the Ile de Molène and on June 17, 2021, for the Ile d’Yeu. Both vessels will now go through a heavy engineering and upgrade program. The Ile de Molène will be assigned to the maintenance of customer telecommunications cables in the Atlantic and North Sea. The vessel is expected to start operating in the first half of 2022. Ile d’Yeu will join the installation fleet at the end of 2022, and be installed with transoceanic telecom systems. The vessels specifications are as follows: the Ile d’Yeu is 147 m long, and has 4,375 net tonnage and 13,520 gross tonnage. The Ile de Molène is 98 m long, and has 2,080 net tonnage and 5,729 gross tonnage.

11/2/21 – Sweden’s Sandvik has acquired Swiss-based company Accuratech Group, a manufacturer of niched medical wire forming and components.

Accuratech includes the operations of Polyfill, which per its website makes a wide range of specialty products. Those include wires used in nano- and micro-technologies as well as in applications in the medical field; round bare wires from 0.8 mm to 0.007 mm; flat wires and ribbons used for multiple applications; electroplated wire (gold, nickel, platinum, silver and zinc); and insulated wires, from simple copper wire to multi-coated biocompatible wire or special alloys. A second company, Galvarex, provides electroplating treatments for products, including wire, for demanding industries such as medical, automotive, micro tech and electronic.

A press release said that the acquired businesses will be reported in Kanthal, a division of Sandvik Materials Technology. “I am pleased that we are continuing to execute on our shift to growth strategy,” said Sandvik President and CEO Stefan Widing. “This acquisition is an important step for Sandvik Materials Technology in the preparations to become a separately listed company. With its increased focus on areas with high growth and strong earnings potential, Sandvik Materials Technology is strengthening their position for the future.”

11/2/21 – Gulf Cable and Electrical Industries Company of Kuwait and the Riyadh Cables Group Company of Saudi Arabia have signed a partnership agreement to build a factory in Kuwait that will specialize in manufacturing high-voltage cables.

A press release said that the project is considered the first of its kind in Kuwait. “These types of transformative industries are important for infrastructure projects and future constructions, especially those related to the Ministry of Electricity and Water and Renewable Energy and the Housing Care Authority, as Kuwait is seeking to develop and build projects based on the partnership plan between the public and private sector as per Kuwait’s 2035 “New Kuwait” vision.

Gulf Cable and Electrical Industries Company notes that it has been a leading manufacturer of cables, power and telephone lines for more than 46 years.

With affiliates in 22 domestic/regional locations, Riyadh Cables manufactures and supplies all types of wire and cables at its state-of-art facilities.

11/2/21 – Prysmian Group has been given an extension of its partnership with Openreach, the U.K.’s largest digital network business, with a new three-year contract.

A press release said that the Prysmian Group will provide innovation and expertise to support Openreach’s updated Full Fibre broadband build plan, which is vital to the U.K.’s government achieving its target of delivering “gigabit capable broadband” to 85% of the U.K. by 2025. “This is as Openreach follows an extended investment commitment by its parent, BT Group meaning that it’ll now build Full Fibre technology to a total of 25 million premises, including more than six million in the hardest-to-serve parts.”

Marcello Del Brenna, CEO Prysmian Group UK, said that the company has been a partner with Openreach for more than a half century. The latest contract reflects the positive impact our working relationship has had on the U.K.’s digital networks infrastructure. The extension of our working relationship comes at a time when Prysmian is investing in telecommunications innovation to ensure our digital network partners have the cutting-edge solutions. We have also taken great steps forward with our sustainability effort, eliminating paper inclusions from our products and replacing them with digital solutions.”

Openreach Managing Director for Fibre and Network Delivery Matthew Hemmings said that building a new broadband network across the U.K. is a hugely complex, nationwide engineering project. “It will help level-up the U.K. because the impact of Full Fibre broadband stretches from increased economic prosperity and international competitiveness to higher employment and environmental benefits by enabling more home working and fewer commuting trips.”

In the framework of this renewed partnership, Openreach has recently undertaken a live trial using the double overblow installation method developed by Prysmian Group. This Karona installation technique enables the installation of high-density optical fiber cable into pre-existing sub-ducted routes, already containing legacy cable. The trial took place at Stonehaven in Scotland. The cable used for the trial was Sirocco HD 144f with 5.0 mm diameter, and the innovative installation method allowed to overblow 600 mts of cable in less than 4 hours, increasing the capacity of the route to 432f. This installation technique was repeated at Bury St Edmunds, where a route of 730 mts was successfully overblown in less than four hours.

11/1/21 – Following a strategic plan to focus on its Wiring Systems Group, Leoni AG has sold the majority of its industrial business to strategic investor BizLink Holding Inc.

A press release said that the company has sold its Business Group Industrial Solutions, which belongs to the WCS division (Wire & Cable Solutions) and represents significant parts of its industrial business. The sale marks another important milestone on Leoni’s path towards the long-term stabilization of the company via its VALUE 21 performance and strategy program.

“With this step, we are once again proving that we are consistently continuing to implement our announced and already advanced focus on the Wiring System Division,” said Leoni AG CEO Aldo Kamper. The company has previously stated its plans to strategically focus on consolidating its leading position as a supplier of wiring systems for the automotive industry. Against this backdrop, Leoni has already sold two units of the WCS division (Leoni Schweiz AG and the data communication and compound divisions of Leoni Kerpen GmbH) in recent months.

BizLink is an international provider of high-quality solutions for cable connections and connectivity services. BizLink’s acquisition of Leoni’s Industrial Solutions will expand its market presence, especially in Europe, and there is a clear perspective for future development and growth. The sale includes around 20 international locations of the Leoni Industrial Solutions business in 10 countries with around 3,000 employees. The activities of these locations, among others, include the areas of healthcare, robotics and automation.

“The Industrial Solutions business today operates globally successfully in the market, and I am convinced that it continues to have a very promising future,” Kamper said. “For the WCS units put up for sale due to our strategic focus on the automotive industry, it has always been our goal to find investors who want to strategically develop the products and services. I am confident that we have succeeded in doing so with BizLink.”

BizLink Chairman Roger Liang said the acquisition is a very good fit. “(It) will boost our technical and service capabilities, solidify our global scale, bring us closer to customers, and gain access to new industrial customers. The acquisition brings forward our long-term diversification plans, and will provide BizLink with immediate gains within multiple secular growth industries.”

The sold activities generated sales of approximately €430 million in fiscal year 2020 and are valued with an enterprise value of around €450 million. Upon completion of the sale, a profit of around €200 million is expected to be accounted for in the Group’s reported EBIT.

11/1/21 –NEC Corporation has been contracted by Facebook to build an ultra-high performance transatlantic subsea fiber-optic cable connecting the U.S. and Europe, a plan that calls for capacity of up to a petabit per second.

A press release said that, until recently, subsea cable was composed of 16 fiber pairs at most. Now, using NEC’s newly developed 24-fiber pair cable and repeaters, a system can deliver a maximum transmission capacity of a half petabit per second, the highest to date for a long-distance “repeatered” optical subsea cable system. That performance represents a 50% improvement in fiber count over the 16-fiber pair systems.

Per Teleography, Facebook has a stake in 13 cables. Google has an ownership stake in at least 16 current or planned undersea cables around the world. It noted that the internet giants are the ones leading undersea cable development, displacing traditional telecom giants.

Of note, OCC, an NEC subsidiary, previously reported in March that its 24 fiber pair cable can be manufactured using a wide range of existing optical fibers, according to the needs of each new cable system. International data usage across the Atlantic is expected to expand twenty-fold in the 15 years between 2021 and 2035. The region ranks among the highest growth geographies for data traffic demand, bringing ever-greater demands to reduce the cost per bit on subsea cable networks.