Brazil’s Gerdau S.A. has agreed to sell Optimus Steel LLC its wire rod mill in Texas, and two downstream facilities, for $92.50 million.

A press release said that the deal will include Gerdau’s wire rod mill in Beaumont. The mill has a melt shop capacity of approximately 700,000 tons, and is capable of producing both wire rod and coiled rebar. The sale also includes two downstream facilities: Beaumont Wire Products and Carrollton Wire Products. Beaumont Wire Products. The former was described as a wire mesh mill and the latter as a supplier of industrial wire into the greater U.S. southern region.

The news follow a previous announcement by Gerdau of the sale of four rebar mills and nearly three dozen downstream facilities to Commercial Metals Company for US$600 million. Once the two separate deals close, Gerdau, which was part of a recent trade case seeking to limit the in-flow of low-cost imported wire rod, will be out of that sector.

Gerdau Chief Executive Gustavo Werneck said that the company will “focus on more value-added products.” It will continue to have a considerable presence in North America, with 18 facilities, 15 in the U.S. and three in Canada that produce merchant steel, structural steel and some rebar.

Nexans announced that it has acquired a controlling interest in BE CableCon, a Danish company that supplies cable kits to wind turbine companies.

A press release said that the investment is part of Nexans’ strategy to reinforce the company’s portfolio of activities beyond cable manufacturing and accelerate growth in the renewable energy sector. BE CableCon designs, engineers and manufactures kits that enable wind turbine companies to simplify the installation of the power, control and communication cable systems in towers and nacelles. It offers low and medium voltage applications including connectors, pre-connected and pre-assembled cable kits and customized packing for complete ready-to-install kits.

“We have developed an excellent working relationship with BE CableCon as a subcontractor for our own kitting projects,” said Alain Robic, Nexans vice president industry solutions and projects. “Bringing them into the Nexans Group is a key step in our strategy to take greater control of critical elements within the value chain so that we can offer customers a complete engineered connection system.”
BE CableCon chief executive Klaus Moller will head the Nexans cable kit subsidiary company

Corning Incorporated announced that the company has officially opened a new cable manufacturing facility in Newton, North Carolina, as part of the company’s expansion plans to meet growing worldwide demand for its optical fiber and cable.

A press release said that the facility, which will employ more than 200 people, is part of Corning’s previously announced plan to invest more than $250 million in its optical fiber, cable, and solutions manufacturing facilities. In North Carolina, Corning is expanding its fiber manufacturing facility near Concord and its cable facilities in Winston-Salem and Hickory, in addition to opening the Newton plant.

“Network operators around the world are challenged to meet exploding demand for high-speed connectivity and data storage,” said Clark S. Kinlin, executive vice president, Corning Optical Communications. “We are adding this cable capacity to help ensure reliable supply of the world’s highest performing optical cable in a growing market. This world-class facility was commissioned in record time, a feat that would not have been possible without our long-serving Catawba County employees, or the support of state and local leaders here in North Carolina.”

 Xtera®, a U.S. provider of subsea fiber optic solutions, reports that it has been selected as the supplier of the ARBR submarine fiber optic cable system being developed jointly by Seaborn Networks and the Werthein Group.

A press release said that the 2,700 km open system, 4-fiber pair, 48Tbps, direct PoP-to-PoP subsea cable will connect Argentina and Brazil. The ARBR subsea cable system will allow for direct onward connectivity to New York, via the Seabras-1 system, thereby providing a lower latency route between the commercial and financial centers of Buenos Aires, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and New York.  The ARBR cable is fully funded. It said.

“This award further consolidates Xtera's position as a strong player in the regional submarine market segment and is a significant endorsement of Xtera's differentiated product offering," said Xtera Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer Stuart Barnes.  "Our four pillars of product and service offerings encompass subsea systems technologies, wet and dry upgrades, IP licensing, and OEM / specialist units to selected markets."

The company notes that it offers un-repeatered and repeatered subsea connectivity, using the highest bandwidth undersea amplifiers for up to 40 Terabits on a single fiber pair. 

The Prysmian Group announced that it has been awarded a contract by Cobra Wind International Ltd. to provide the cable system to connect the Kincardine Floating Offshore Wind Farm to mainland U.K.

A press release said that the order, Prysmian’s first cable project for a floating offshore wind farm, calls for the design and supply of two export cables as well as inter-array cables and associated accessories to connect the turbines. The Kincardine Wind Farm, is some 15 km southeast of Aberdeen, to the Scottish mainland power grid.

Each of the continuous export cables will serve the 17 km route, using a static cable design combined with a 0.5 km dynamic cable route section to complete the connection to the floating turbine tower. The 33 kV three-core submarine cable will use EPR insulation system, with the static section length finished with single wire armoring, while the dynamic section will employ a double-wire armored design. The submarine cables will be produced at the Group plants in Vilanova, Spain, and Drammen, Norway. Installation is planned during 2018 and 2019.

The Kincardine project is planned to be built in two stages. A single turbine 2 MW first phase is scheduled to be installed this year, followed by a six-turbine second phase with hardware of up to 8.4 MW each. The first phase will consist of a Vestas V80 2 MW machine with a 106-meter tip height and 80-meter rotor diameter.