The Prysmian Group announced that it has agreed to reserve capacity to supply the cable to the Marinus Link Pty Ltd., a subsidiary of the Australian TSO TasNetworks, for a new power interconnector between Tasmania and Victoria, Australia.

A press release said that the contract for the project, valued at approximately €90 million, will be negotiated and is expected to be finalized within 2024. Prysmian Group has reserved the capacity to design, test, supply and install a HVDC Cable System, consisting of 320 kV single-core cables with XLPE insulation and single-wire armoring, covering both submarine and land sections.

The submarine connection will be approximately 255 km long, from Northwest Tasmania to Waratah Bay, Victoria, while the underground cable will run for approximately 90 km reaching the Latrobe Valley, Victoria. The link will include a submarine fiber optic cable of 255 km.

The submarine cable would be made at the Prysmian Group’s plant in Arco Felice, Italy, while the land cables has been reserved at its plant in either Delft, The Netherlands, or Gron, France. The laying would be done by the Prysmian Group’s Leonardo da Vinci.

Under the Marinus Link project, Prysmian Group is expected to also provide a fully integrated PRY-CAM permanent monitoring system. All cables will be constantly monitored using the PRY-CAM innovative solutions like Distributed Temperature (DTS) and Acoustic Sensing (DAS) to measure all key operating parameters of the whole cable system.

“This capacity reservation agreement has a strategic importance for Prysmian as it underlines our global leadership and strengthens our regional presence in Oceania as a major supplier of an extensive range of high-tech products to power utilities,” said Detlev Waimann, Chief Commercial Officer Projects BU, Prysmian Group.

Of note, the project originally called for two power cables. In 2017, the Marinus Link was designed to include two 750-megawatt cables at a total cost of about $3 billion. Fast forward through a period of global inflation, Covid and raw material cost increases and the projected cost was $5.4 billion. The cost for the project with a single cable was estimated at $1.9 to $2 billion. The single cable, it was said, would achieve about two-thirds of the project value.

Southwire has entered into a partnership with NKT to supply underground cables for the Champlain Hudson Power Express Project (CHPE).

A press release said that Southwire will supply a portion of the underground power cables for the CHPE project for NKT, the project’s turnkey cable supplier and cable system technology owner. CHPE will require roughly 546-km fully buried, high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission system using a combination of submarine and underground cables. Southwire will manufacture the cables at its Huntersville Plant in North Carolina.

“As I have said many times, it is a great time to be in our industry and an even better time to be at Southwire,” said Rich Stinson, Southwire’s president and CEO. “We are honored and excited to enter a partnership with NKT and support one of the largest renewable projects in the nation.”

“The award to Southwire is an important element for securing sufficient manufacturing capacity for a project of this size and combines our HVDC cable system technology and design with Southwire’s manufacturing expertise,” said Mika Makela, managing director, NKT North America.

The transmission project is designed to deliver 1,250 megawatts of clean, renewable hydropower from the U.S.-Canadian border to Queens, New York, enough power for more than one million New York homes.

Hellenic Cables announced it has been awarded an EPCI contract for the grid interconnection of the Western Offshore Substation of Gennaker Offshore Wind Farm in the Baltic Sea, off Germany.

A press release said that Hellenic Cables, the cables segment of Cenergy Holdings, won the contract—worth approximately €400 million—from 50Hertz Offshore GmbH. It calls for the turnkey delivery of two export cable systems for the interconnection to the German grid of the Western Offshore Sub Station of Gennaker, an offshore wind farm with capacity of approximately 927 MW located in the German Baltic Sea.

Hellenic Cables will design, provide, install and commission the two export cable systems that will connect a new onshore substation. The site is located close to Gnewitz in Northern Germany, to the Western Offshore Sub Station of the wind farm. The order calls for 80 km of 220 kV submarine and 210 km of 220 kV underground cables as well as related accessories. They are expected to be installed and delivered in 2027.

The submarine cables will be manufactured at Hellenic Cables’ manufacturing plant in Corinth, Greece, and the underground cables will be manufactured at the company’s plant in Thiva, Greece.

 SubCom announced that it will manufacture and install a regional subsea cable that will branch from the SEA-ME-WE 6 cable system, and will significantly enhance the data exchange capabilities of the Kingdom of Bahrain.

A press release said that Al Khaleej will stretch 1,400 km, connecting Bahrain to regional countries that include Qatar, UAE and Oman. The customer is Batelco, part of the Beyon Group, a telecom solutions provider in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Al Khaleej, to be made at SubCom’s plant in Newington, New Hampshire, will substantially boost the capabilities and strengthen regional connectivity. It will branch from the SEA-MEWE 6 cable, a 21,700 km-long subsea telecom data cable system.

“Our congratulations to Batelco on the launch of the Al Khaleej regional cable system,” said Benoit Duguet, SubCom project manager. “Our organization is already at work manufacturing the cable and equipment necessary to complete one of the more extensive cable projects ever commissioned. We are grateful to the entire SEA-ME-WE 6 consortium for entrusting SubCom with this critical project, and to Batelco in particular, for giving us the opportunity to build a branch that will have such a positive impact on the region’s connectivity”

Batelco joined the SEA-ME-WE 6 consortium in February, which includes Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL), Bharti Airtel Ltd. (India), Dhivehi Raajjeyge Gulhun Public Limited Company (Dhiraagu Maldives), China Unicom (China), Djibouti Telecom, Mobily (Saudi Arabia), Orange (France), Singtel (Singapore), Sri Lanka Telecom, Telecom Egypt, Telekom Malaysia, Telin (Indonesia) and Trans World Associates (Pakistan).

The SEA-ME-WE 6 cable system will have the capability of transferring more than 100 terabits per second. The new subsea cable will create a layer of network diversity and resilience for the heavily used routes connecting the Middle East towards Europe and Asia.

SubCom is a leader in high fiber count cables, The SEA-ME-WE 6 subsea cable connectivity to Bahrain and Al Khaleej Cable are expected to be completed by Q2 2026.

Republic Steel ordered by judge to pay some $4.6 million for trucking services

Republic Steel, which in August announced it would close two of its U.S. plants and move production to Mexico—which is home to its parent company, Grupo Simec—has been ordered to pay trucking company Beemac nearly $2.6 million for failing to pay for trucking services.

Per multiple reports, a federal district judge for the Western District of Pennsylvania has entered final judgment against Republic Steel in August. Beemac, the trucking service provider, had filed a lawsuit in September 2020 claiming Republic Steel failed to pay more than $2.2 million for transportation services it provided.

The amount was in dispute, with Republic Steel claiming it owed only $1.2 million. Beemac received a partial summary judgment in January. In July, a federal jury returned the verdict against Republic Steel. It awarded nearly $2.5 million in favor of Beemac Inc., doing business as Beemac Trucking, and nearly $2 million for Deemac Services, both of Ambridge, Pennsylvania. Those findings were upheld by U.S. District Court Judge William S. Stickman IV in August.