Batelco recently selected SubCom to provide and install a fiber-optic submarine cable for the Al Khaleej Cable that will branch from SEA-ME-WE 6 to extend connectivity from Bahrain to other regional countries.

A press release said that the order from Batelco, a telecom company that is part of the Beyon Group, will significantly enhance the data exchange capabilities of the Kingdom of Bahrain. The 1,400-km-long Al Khaleej Cable that will connect Bahrain to the regional countries of Qatar, UAE and Oman, will substantially boost Batelco’s capabilities and strengthen regional connectivity.”

“We are delighted to partner with SubCom,” said Batelco Chief Global Business Officer Hani Askar. 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. Batelco joined the SEA-ME-WE 6 cable consortium in February 2023.

Work on the SEA-ME-WE 6 cable, a 21,700 km-long subsea telecommunications data cable system, began in early 2022 and is scheduled for completion in 2025. It is designed to offer one of the lowest latencies available between the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Western Europe, able to transfer more than 100 terabits per second. All cable and equipment related to both SEA-ME-WE 6 and Al Khaleej will be manufactured by SubCom at its campus in Newington, New Hampshire.

SubCom Project Manager Benoit Duguet said that the company “is already at work manufacturing the cable and equipment necessary to complete one of the more extensive cable projects ever commissioned.”

 Once completed, the cable and equipment for both the SEA-ME-WE 6 and Al Khaleej Cable systems will be deployed by SubCom’s Reliance Class cable ships. The SEA-ME-WE 6 subsea cable connectivity to Bahrain and Al Khaleej Cable is scheduled for completion by the second quarter of 2026.

Bekaert announced that the company has delivered its first batch of tire reinforcement with third-party certified recycled steel content to Bridgestone Corporation.

A press release said that Bekaert has been paving the way for tire reinforcement with high recycled content that contributes to the circular economy. That steel’s recycled content reduced the company’s CO2 footprint by about 50%.

“There are many claims about circularity of materials in the tire industry, but lack of clear definitions and standards can lead to doubt on the validity of those claims,” said Bekaert’s Heiko Isselee, innovation platform manager for recycled steel. “This third-party certification of both Bekaert and our wire rod supplier enables us to provide our customers with a guarantee of compliance of the recycled content claims based on recognized industry standards.”

The certificate allows customers such as Bridgestone to include the recycled content in the Bekaert products it uses to the tally of recycled content in their tires. Bekaert applies the best available recycled content definitions and traceability of materials. Bekaert’s tire reinforcement has a minimum recycled content of 50% for tire cord and 70% for bead wire. The rigorous processes at the supplier’s wire rod factory and at the Bekaert steel cord plant allow Bekaert to trace the content in the composition and separate this material from others in all steps of production, storage, and transport. Thus, it is guaranteed that the physical content of the steel cord and bead wire supplied to our customers contain the declared amount of recycled steel.

“This successful pilot is the first step toward setting a new industry standard for recycled content in tire reinforcement, and to making certified tire reinforcement with high recycled content available to our customers across the globe,” the release said.

Prysmian reports that it has been awarded a contract worth over €100 million by Petrobras to provide 170 km of deep-water electro-hydraulic umbilicals and related specialized offshore and logistic services.

A press release said that the deal calls for deep-water steel tube and thermoplastic umbilicals. They will be engineered, produced, tested and delivered from 2024-2027 by Prysmian’s offshore specialties site in Vila Velha, Brazil.

“This award confirms the mutual trust and long-standing relationship between Petrobras and Prysmian Group, as it is the latest of several projects developed for the Brazilian energy company,” said Detlev Waimann, CCO Projects Business Unit, Prysmian Group.

The release said that the dedicated Offshore Specialties unit can deliver solutions for the most challenging subsea projects. In recent years, the Group has invested in further expanding its industrial assets in the Vila Velha plant and its logistic delivery options, as well its entire end-to-end value generation process, from the R&D modelling up to offshore services, to better meet customer needs offering technologically advanced cable solutions.

Per a company data sheet, the umbilicals are high pressure hydraulic control hoses made of a nylon extruded liner, reinforced with a polyaramid braid and sheathed with an extruded polyurethane layer. Electrical control cables are insulated and jacketed with SEVEREX high performance compounds. The electrical cable design and performance can meet the most demanding and specific system requirements. The umbilical components are assembled and sheathed with a polymeric extruded layer and then armored with a counter-helix double-layer flat steel wire armor, to virtually eliminate any torsional tendency due to installation/operation stresses and improve the umbilical hydrodynamic stability.

Nexans announced that it has signed two memorandums of understanding with the Moroccan government for a new cable plant in Morocco that would open in 2026.

A press release said that Nexans signed the agreements with the Moroccan Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development, Ministry of Investment, Convergence and Evaluation of Public Policies, the National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water (ONEE) and the Moroccan Investment and Export Development Agency (AMDIE).

The project, which calls for a €100 million total investment plan, would be the company’s third plant for medium-voltage cable in Morocco, the others being in Casablanca and Mohammedia. The project is expected to create more than 200 direct jobs and will benefit from the backing of the Moroccan Ministries, the ONEE and the AMDIE. The project will meet the Group’s standards of excellence, in line with its Industry 4.0 digitalization and sustainability goals and will deliver cables to Africa.

“Once again, I commend Morocco’s outstanding leadership in bringing the benefits of sustainable electrification to all,” said Nexans CEO Christopher Guérin. The project is aligned with the desire of King Mohammed VI, the current leader in the region and across Africa, for deployment of renewable energy infrastructure.

The release said that Morocco aims to consolidate the entire industrial ecosystem in the years to come. The described transformative project will strengthen the development of the renewable energy industry value chain in the Kingdom and to promote technical advancement in the local industrial fabric.

Guérin said that he was pleased to see this latest step in the country, where Nexans has been operating for more than 75 years. “This project, bringing together public and private players, sets out to achieve, from the very start, ecological and human commitments, thereby unlocking significant economic potential for all of Africa.”