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Southwire celebrated the grand opening of its Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) Customer Service Center (CSC)—located in  an area called AllianceTexas—with some 150 Southwire team members, leaders, community partners and guests gathered on August 22 to cut the ribbon on the company’s newest and largest distribution center.

A press release said that the nearly 1.2 million-sq-ft facility will distribute products for the full suite of Southwire solutions, including business segments such as commercial, residential, utility, industrial and Electrical Products & Engineered Solutions (EP&ES). The Southwire DFW CSC, which is expected to employ 250 team members, offers modernized storage solutions and automated material handling.

The ribbon cutting event featured remarks from Southwire leadership, as well as Ross Perot, Jr., Chairman of Hillwood, the developer behind AllianceTexas, a lunch celebration and tours of the facility.

Per reports, AllianceTexas—a Hillwood development—consists of 27,000 acres and is anchored by the world’s first dedicated industrial airport, Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport. It is home to 560 companies that have created more than 66,000 direct jobs.

Last modified on September 5, 2024

The Prysmian Group announced that it has received a confirmation from Marinus Link Pty Ltd., a subsidiary of the Australian transmission systems operator (TSO) TasNetworks, for a project that will establish a new power interconnector between Tasmania and Victoria, Australia.

A press release said that Prysmian had reserved capacity for last year for the project, valued at approximately €300 million. Work will commence with the issuance of a notice to proceed, which is expected by August 2025.

The route will require cable to span 345 km, including 255 km undersea across Bass Strait, and 90 km underground in Gippsland, Victoria. The release said that Prysmian will supply 20 kV single-core cables with XLPE insulation and single-wire armoring, covering both submarine and land sections.

The submarine cables will be produced at Prysmian’s plant in Arco Felice, Italy, and the land cables at either the Prysmian plant in Delft, The Netherlands, or in Gron, France. Installation operations will be delivered by Prysmian’s Leonardo da Vinci. The company will also provide a fully integrated PRY-CAM permanent monitoring system. The completion date is set for 2030.

Last modified on September 5, 2024

Belgium’s Cenergy Holdings, which earlier this year announced plans to establish a cable manufacturing facility in Maryland, reports that its U.S. subsidiary, Hellenic Cables Americas, has completed its acquisition of a 38-acre property in Wagner’s Point along the Patapsco River in Baltimore, Maryland.

A press release said the plant will be used to manufacture underwater and underground cables for offshore wind and grid modernization applications. The project was estimated to cost about $300 million.

Of note, the project is being bolstered by Hellenic Cables Americas successfully getting a transferable tax credit from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). An estimated 120 new manufacturing jobs will be created when the factory is fully operational, toward the end of 2026. Hellenic Cable is one of the largest cable producers in Europe, manufacturing power and telecom cables as well as submarine cables.

Last modified on September 5, 2024

TT Cable announced that it has opened a subsidiary in Timisoara, Romania—TT Cables S.R.L.— that will join five other subsidiaries that distribute the company’s low-voltage electrical cables in southeast Europe.

At its web site, the company, which was founded in 2007, notes that TT Cables S.R.L. will join its sister subsidiaries. Collectively, they can better “foster stronger relationships with our customers by providing customized support and solutions that meet the unique needs of their market.”

The company, which earlier this year opened a new 20,000-sq-m manufacturing plant in Macedonia, noted that Romania has long been an export market. “This step signifies the next level in our growth strategy as we expand our business with ... two new factories and significantly increasing our capacity and product range. This subsidiary, with our professional staff supported by a local sales team, brings us even closer to our Romanian and neighboring customers.”

TT Cables is based in Bosnia and Herzegovina, along with its production facilities, on the Balkan Peninsula in southeastern Europe. Its other subsidiaries include TT Cables Nordic (Lithuania), TT Kabeli doo Beograd (Serbia), T Kabeli Croatia, TT Cables GmbH Austria and Brodomerkur Energetika Ltd., also in Croatia. The company notes that it has more than 400 employees and markets in 50 countries.

Last modified on September 5, 2024

Corning Incorporate and Lumen Technologies announced that they have entered into an agreement that will see Corning provide Lumen with a substantial supply of its next-generation optical cable.

A press release said that the fiber-dense cable will more than double Lumen’s U.S. intercity fiber miles, offering significant capacity to major cloud data centers racing to stay ahead of AI workloads and high bandwidth applications fueled by massive amounts of data. The optical fiber is a key as generative artificial intelligence (AI) requires at least 10 times more fiber connections within data centers, as well as a robust fiber network to transmit information between these data hubs. “With this agreement, Lumen reserves 10% of Corning’s global fiber capacity for each of the next two years.”

Corning Incorporated Chairman and CEO Wendell P. Weeks said that the agreement is good for both companies. “This marks the first outside-plant deployment of Corning’s new gen-AI fiber and cable system, which will enable Lumen to fit anywhere from two-to-four times the amount of fiber into their existing conduit.”

“Lumen is the network that delivers AI. The rise of AI is driving technology companies to quickly secure fiber and bandwidth before their competition,” said Kate Johnson, president and CEO, Lumen Technologies. “With Corning’s innovative solutions, we’re building the backbone of the AI economy. This partnership gives Lumen status as a preferred partner and secures a significant supply of next-generation fiber today and in the future.”

Lumen notes that it has the largest ultra-low-loss intercity fiber network in North America. Its U.S. intercity network includes routes to more than 50 major cities.

“As generative AI increases bandwidth requirements between data centers, we’re pleased to reach an agreement with Lumen Technologies to provide our latest optical fiber and cable innovations to facilitate Lumen’s build of a new network to interconnect AI-enabled data centers.”

To properly power AI with capacity, performance, stability and speed, Lumen is creating a digital platform on top of its physical network allowing cloud-like consumption of network services. Lumen’s Private Connectivity Fabric℠ is a custom network that includes dedicated access to existing fiber in the Lumen network, the installation of new fiber on existing and new routes, and access to Lumen’s digital services.

Last modified on September 5, 2024

Gerdau Cosigua has contracted Russula for an electrical and controls upgrade of its rolling mill #2, which will take place in two phases.

A press release said that the scope of the first phase is from the reheat furnace to the laying head. Obsolete drive and control equipment will be upgraded with new drives, PLCs for optimal mill control and an HMI supplied by Russula along with new remote IOs.

Based in A Coruña, Spain, Russula provides electrical and automation solutions for bar, rod and section mills and reheating furnaces, steel making and strip processing lines. The project will use Russula’s artificial vision cameras that optimize shear cutting in the wire rod mill. The AV system measures the shear cuts automatically and adjusts the cut length to minimize metallic losses thus improving mill efficiency.

In June 2024, the kickoff meeting for phase 1 took place on site at the Gerdau Cosigua plant in Santa Cruz, Brazil. The second phase covers the furnace combustion and all the equipment in the coil cooling and handling area is scheduled for 2025.

Last modified on September 5, 2024

South Korea’s LS Cable & System reported that one of its subsidiaries has received an order for extra-high voltage cable from Vietnam Electricity (EVN), the Southeast Asian country’s state-owned electricity utility.

A press release said that the cables will be installed in infrastructure projects for Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat International Airport and an industrial complex in the northeastern part of the country. LS Eco Energy produces extra-high voltage cables in its Vietnam plant and accounts for 80% of the local cable market. It also exports Vietnamese-made cables to Europe and North America.

LS Cable owns a 67% stake in LS Eco Energy.

EVN notes that the need for power is acute in Vietnam. It reported that increasing national power consumption is straining the resources that must be able to handle intense hot and muggy weather. The National Load Dispatch Center said that on May 28, national power consumption in a single day surpassed 1 billion kWh, and on June 14 its usage set a record peak of 1.02 billion kWh.

Last modified on September 5, 2024

Prysmian has received a Letter of Award for an energy transmission project that calls for it to supply the cable to connect the island Mallorca with the Spanish mainland, a project valued at more than €500 million.

A press release said that Prysmian and Red Eléctrica, the transmission system operator of the Spanish electricity system, will hold an exclusive negotiation of the contract, with the signing expected by the end of 2024. Prysmian will be responsible for the design, installation, testing and commissioning of two HVDC 250 kV MI single-core cables, as well as fiber optic cable for telecom and monitoring purposes that will connect the island of Mallorca with the Spanish mainland power grid, covering both the submarine and land section. The project will reinforce the quality and security of the Balearic Islands’ electricity supply.

“Prysmian has strengthened its leading role in development interconnections thanks to the second Baleares Peninsula project, as we continue to enable increasingly efficient and sustainable power transmission grids in the Mediterranean area,” said Hakan Ozmen, EVP Transmission at Prysmian. The project will use the same consolidated MI cable technology previously deployed in the Peninsula Baleares 1 installation, he said.

In recent years, Prysmian’s long relationship with Red Electrica has seen the company being awarded projects such as the Ibiza-Formentera, Lanzarote-Fuerteventura, Tenerife –La Gomera and Ceuta-Peninsula connections.

Last modified on September 5, 2024

TS Conductor has raised $60 million to finance a significant expansion of its U.S. manufacturing capacity for its advanced conductors.

A press release said that most of the funds will go to opening a new, much larger factory at an unnamed location in the Eastern U.S. The new factory will have about 10 times the annual capacity of its Southern California facility, which can produce 5,000 miles of conductors.

TS Conductor notes that it has support from very credible companies in the transmission field. Along with lead investor Wellington Management and early-stage investor Breakthrough Energy Ventures, investors in the recent funding round included the venture arm of utility National Grid; U.S. utility holding company Edison International; a subsidiary of leading U.S. renewable energy developer NextEra Energy Resources; Energy & Environment Investment, Inc.; and Quanta Services, a major transmission project engineering and management firm.

The release said that TS Conductor’s advanced conductors, made of aluminum surrounding a carbon composite core, are lighter, stronger and capable of carrying more electricity than the aluminum and steel cables that are used across most of the grid. They can serve an important role in improving the U.S. power grid.

Since its inaugural U.S. deployment with Montana-Dakota Utilities, in 2021, TS Conductor has been working with the federally owned power company Tennessee Valley Authority, Arizona utility Arizona Public Service, and other U.S. utilities, Huang said. The company largely maxed out its production capacity of its Southern California factory that it opened in 2023.

Last modified on September 5, 2024

Yangtze expands Poland plant, starts optical fiber cable production in Mexico

China’s Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Joint Stock Limited Company (YOFC) reports that it has expanded production at its Poland plant and started production at its expanded plant in Mexico.

A press release said that on July 12, the company’s expansion project was successfully completed, marked by the first reel of indoor cable rolling off the production line in the new workshop. Construction of the plant began in 2021 with the first reel of qualified outdoor cable produced in February 2022. Full capacity was reached in October 2022 and the subsidiary’s growth to a project to expand the plant’s indoor cable production in 2023. That project is wrapped up, and the plant’s current product mix is now more diversified and better able to cater to the European market’s demand.

YOFC also announced that operations commenced Aug. 8 at Yangtze Optics Mexico Cable S.A. de C.V. in Mexico’s Jalisco State, marking its first production facility in the nation. It said that this development represents a significant phase in YOFC’s international strategy and positions the company to capitalize on the growing demand for telecom infrastructure in Mexico for which it will supply fiber optic cables and solutions.

“We look forward to Yangtze Optics Mexico providing customers with the best solutions through its strong professional technology and high-quality product services, becoming the most trusted fiber optic cable supplier in the area,” said YOFC President and Executive Director Zhuang Dan.

YOFC notes that since 2014, it has embraced the national Belt and Road Initiative and embarked on “a relentless journey of internationalization.” Its products are now sold to more than 100 countries and regions

Last modified on September 5, 2024

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