7/2/2022 - 

Christine Lovett has joined Fil-Tec as director of business development for the company’s Wire and Cable division. She has nearly 25 years of global experience in the wire and cable industry. Prior to joining Fil-Tec, she served as business development and product manager at LLFlex where she oversaw growth and product life cycle of their armoring and shielding products for the wire and cable industry. Before that she worked for more than 18 years at Sonoco Products Company and Zumbach Electronics Corporation in various wire and cable technical and commercial roles. She holds an MBA degree from The University of Memphis and a B.S. degree in business administration and management from Marist College. Based in Hagerstown, Maryland, Fil-Tech sells yarns to fields that include wire and cable.

David Hawker was promoted to director of engineering for Cerrowire. A WAI Past President (2017), he joined the company as a plant manager in March 2021. Prior to that he had worked for 32 years for Nexans, where he started out in 1987 as an engineering manager and served in roles with increasing responsibility, his last being vice president and general manager of the Energy Division North America of Nexans. Based in Hartselle, Alabama, and a Marmon/Berkshire Hathaway company, Cerrowire is a copper wire manufacturing company with plants in Alabama, Georgia, Indiana and Utah.

Q8Oils has promoted Andrew Turner to global technical sales manager - wire & rolling at Q8Oils. He joined the company in 2003 as a development chemist, and was promoted to product manager in 2007, and became technical manager - Americas in 2008. In 2010, he became a research scientist metalworking for Kuwait Petroleum Research and Technology B.V. (part of Q8 Research), then was named technical sales and logistics manager - American in 2012, prior to his latest promotion. Prior to Q8, he worked five years for Croda Application Chemicals. He holds a chemistry degree from Sheffield Hallam University. A global supplier of oils, Q8Oils serves industries that include wire and cable production.

Kathy Beaudoin was promoted to director of sales operations at Comtran Marmon ITF. She joined the company in 2005 as national sales director, and was named director of sales operations in 2017. She began her career in sales in 1989 at Madison Cable, where she worked for 10 years. She then worked for six years for Century Electronics, General Dynamics Network Systems, DocuServe and ACT Electronics before joining Comtran. Based in Attleboro, Massachusetts, Comtran manufactures cable and system solutions for a variety of applications, including structured cabling, fire safety, circuit integrity and transit communications.

Bartell Machinery Systems has named William Cacciapouti as its sales manager for wire and cable. He previously was East Coast regional sales manager for Quabbin Wire & Cable Co., Inc., which he joined in 2019. Prior to that he worked for 12 years for Quirk Wire Company as outside sales manager, business development manager, and later as sales manager. Before that, he had worked for nine years as a product marketing manager for C&M Corporation. He holds a BBA degree in finance from Nichols College. Based in Rome, New York, Bartell Machinery Systems supplies rotating technology to the wire and cable industry.

Obituary

Christopher Shannon McGill, a plant manager at Southwire’s factory in Huntersville, North Carolina, died June 2 at age 52 from brain cancer.
McGill joined the company as an operations manager in 2015, and was promoted to plant manager in 2018. He previously had worked for three years for ABB as a production manager and as an operational excellence and process engineering manager. Prior to that he worked as a manufacturing manager for ASTA for two years. A WAI member, he was the president of the Southeast Chapter.|

McGill was known at Southwire as a devoted, caring and smart plant manager. He loved his job, his employees and the company he worked for. He battled the cancer for three years, and worked until the day they sent him home for his own good, just one month before he died. If it were up to him he would have gone every day until then.
Survivors include his wife of 29 years, Tina McGill; four children, Amanda Palomino, Nina Derrick, Taylor McGill, and Trevor McGill; his parents, Jane and Murry McGill; three grandchildren, his brother and sister-in-law, Pat and Alexy McGil; and many nieces, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.

7/2/2022 - In 2018, plans were announced for a new fiber-optic cable system from Montréal to Toronto that would include a submarine segment through Lake Ontario between Kingston and downtown Toronto. Per a report at www.subtelforum.com, those plans changed. Below are excerpts from that article about why that happened.

Announced in 2018 as a venture between Metro Optic and Crosslake Fibre along with Utilities Kingston, the Maple Leaf Fibre cable system was to have a terrestrial segment between Montréal, Ottawa, and Kingston, and a submarine segment through Lake Ontario between Kingston and downtown Toronto.

Per a report in Capacity, However, a shortage of cable-laying vessels has led to a change of plans, and now the entire cable system will be terrestrial, running from Toronto via Kingston to Montréal. Crosslake CCO Fergus Innes explained, “Vessel availability [is] one of the reasons we have pivoted from a subsea design to a full terrestrial build on our Maple Leaf Fibre project.”

Earlier this year, the companies were still planning to install the Toronto-Kingston section of the Maple Leaf Fibre on the bed of Lake Ontario. In 2019, Crosslake Fibre laid a cable between Toronto and New York. The cable ship C.S. IT Intrepid had to sail through St. Lawrence Seaway and a series of locks from the Atlantic Ocean to the lake.

The cable lands at Equiix TR2 at 45 Parliament Street and the 151 Front Street West carrier hotel in Toronto, running to Equinix NY4 in Secaucus, New Jersey with an interconnect in Buffalo, New York. It is currently the only cable running under Lake Ontario, and no other cables run under any of the other Great Lakes.

According to the ISCPC, there are around 60 cable ships in the world. According to SubTel Forum’s 2021/2022 Annual Industry Report, no new-build cable ships were delivered between 2004 and 2010 after a glut of investment around the turn of the millennium. Only five ships were delivered between 2011 and 2020.

The report notes that new ships aren’t being added at the same rate older ships are being retired. Only eight ships are younger than 18, with most between 20 and 30 years old. 19 are over 30 years old, and one is over 50.

7/2/2022 - The Midwest Chapter reports that its annual golf tournament was a day to remember for the field of 68 golfers competing for bragging rights on Wednesday, June 1, at the St. Andrews Golf & Country Club in West Chicago, Illinois.

Kevin Sopczak of Liberty Steel, who heads the logistics for the golf tournament, said that the annual golf tournament had been sorely missed as the last two events were not able to be held, “courtesy” of Covid-19, the ultimate scourge and spoilsport. “It was a great day, and everything went off without issue. The day was cloudy, with a high of about 70 degrees, with no rain. It was a picture perfect day for golf.”

The return to the links was warmly greeted. “This was my first WAI Midwest Chapter outing and I thoroughly enjoyed it,” said John Hauerwas, heating and heat treating product manager, Radyne Corporation. “My playing companions were pleasant and interesting to be with, some good networking took place and the course, food and hospitality were also good.”

Claiming bragging rights with a winning low score of 64 was the Lake Cable team of Jack Rosenthal, Justin Albright, Dan Pelzel and Fabian Arias. Other challenge winners included: Closest to the Pin, Hole #7, Jack Rosenthal (Lake Cable), Hole #12 Justin Albright (Lake Cable) and Hole #15, Jim DeGrado (Worth Steel); Longest Drive, Hole #2, Jon Singer (Transend Logistics), Hole #14, Dan Pelzel (Lake Cable) and Hole #17, Mike Krueger (Traxit); and Accurate Drive, Hole #11, Rick Fisher.

Sopzak also thanked the sponsors for the event, which included the following. Longest Drive: Chemetall, Worth Steel & Machinery, Suzuki-Garphyttan, Micro Wire & Bar; Closest to the Pin: Chemetall (2 holes) and Leggett & Platt; Accurate Drive: Central Wire; and Corporate Hole Sponsors: Ivaco Rolling Mills, Omni Source, Precision Die Technologies, Charter Steel, Redline Metals, Suzuki-Garphyttan, D & S Wire, Fort Wayne Wire Die and Lake Michigan Metals.

The Midwest Chapter event continues to be a key fundraiser for the body’s scholarship program.

7/2/2022 - The Ohio Valley Chapter (OVC) has set Sept. 22 as the date for its annual golf tournament, which will also include an educational program, all to be held on the same day.

OVC 2022 will again be held at The Kennsington Club in Canfield, Ohio, which the chapter has used multiple times. Tentative guest speakers include: Ed Harrington of Strecker USA, who will discuss butt welding complexities and solutions; Jeff Danaher of Abbott Furnace, who will discuss annealing problems and practices; Jim Miller of Scientific Forming Technology, who will discuss applications of the DEFORM system in drawing process simulation; Brian Rajotte of OEE Data-Watch, who will discuss automation controls with data acquisition systems; B.J. Austin of Ebner Furnaces, who will discuss furnace issues and solutions; and Tim Moury of Verichek, who will discuss material testing equipment and technology.

Contact John Markowski, 203-458-4044, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Dave Rascati, 260-750-5736, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The other two chapter golf tournaments will also be held in September. Up first is the New England Chapter, which will stage its 28th Annual Golf Tournament & Dinner on Monday, Sept. 12, at the Tunxis Country Club in Farmington, Connecticut. Contact: John Markowski, 203-458-4044, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

On Thursday, Sept. 22, the Southeast Chapter will hold its annual golf tournament & dinner at the Rock Barn Country Club in Conover, North Carolina. Contact: John Markowski, 203-458-4044, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The August issue will have more details on all the tournaments. Registration for all of these golf tournaments is now open at the Association’s online registration system at www.wai.configio.com.

6/3/2022 - South Korea’s Taihan Cable and Solution has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish a joint venture (JV) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Per a report at www.businesskorea, Taihan Cable and Solution announced that it will establish a joint venture in Saudi Arabia to produce ultra-high voltage cables. It will be the first ultra-high voltage cable plant to be built overseas by Taihan Cable and Solution.

The company is partnering with Mohammed Al-Ojaimi Group, a Saudi Arabian EPC company that specializes in power transmission and distribution. The two companies have secured a factory site in a high-tech industrial complex in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, for the construction of the factory. The site is owned by Mohammed Al-Ojaimi Group and is adjacent to Saudi Taihan Cable Co., a subsidiary of Taihan Cable and Solution that produces electric equipment.

Taihan Cable and Solution is planning to expand the market for its 380kV ultra-high voltage cables from Saudi Arabia to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region including Qatar and Kuwait, and Europe. The company notes that it currently has five production bases: a cable factory and a power equipment factory in Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province of Korea, an HV cable factory in Vietnam, an MV cable factory in South Africa and an electric equipment factory in Saudi Arabia. It is also building a submarine cable plant in Dangjin and an optical cable plant in Kuwait.

Per Wikipedia, Taihan Cable & Solution was established in 1955 as the first wire and cable company in South Korea. It has a manufacturing plant in Gyeonggi-do and Chungcheongnam-do and a research center in Gyeonggi-do as well as overseas offices in South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Mongolia, the U.S., Canada, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Australia.