wiredInUSA June 2018

Issue No. 84 - June 2018

www.wiredInUSA.com

America’s online magazine for wire and cable

wiredIn USA

‘Upbeat’ Wire Expo Page 9

Carbon-free venture gets underway. Page 10

First quarter results show minor dip. Page 29

Aluminum development. Page 35

EDITOR

In this day andage, speedandconnectivity are everything. It is little surprise then that celebrations are being held after the 10,556km-long Monet cable system connecting Boca Raton, Florida, to both Fortaleza and Santos, Brazil, became operational. The system, capable of delivering over 65Tb per second, was designed and built on the SubCom Open Cables concept, using the latest submarine technology to provide exceptional bandwidth design capacity and vastly improved Internet latency performance. You can read the full story on page 12. There is a new face at IWCS with the appointment of Michelle Melsop as senior operations manager. She took up the position in March after moving from the Plastics Industry Association and was able to observe the operation of the second annual UL and IWCS International Cable and Connectivity Symposium in Shanghai, China. Turn to page 16 for more details. Brazil hits the headlines again with the news that GlobeNet has deployed a new 2,500km submarine cable linking Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo to Buenos Aires in Argentina, effectively linking the southern cone of South America to the USA and beyond. The new system will be ready for service in the first half of 2020. More details on page 22.

David Bell Editor

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wiredInUSA - June 2018

June 2018 Issue No.84 CONTENTS

06 PAGE

Show Diary 2018

09 PAGE

Making the News Industry news from the USA

28 PAGE

Europe news The latest news from Europe

34 PAGE

Asia & Africa News The latest news from Asia & Africa

40 PAGE

Products, Machines & Technology The latest news from machine industries

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INTRAS INTRAS LIMITED

© 2018 Intras Limited UK ISSN 2046 - 9497 Publishers of EuroWire and Wire & Cable ASIA magazines

INTRAS OFFICES Europe: 46 Holly Walk, Leamington Spa Warwickshire CV32 4HY, UK

Tel: +44 1926 334137 Fax: +44 1926 314755

Email: read@wiredinusa.com Website: www.wiredinusa.com

USA: Danbury Corporate Center, 107 Mill Plain Road, Danbury, CT 06811, USA Tel: +1 203 794 0444 Email: doug@intras.co.uk News Editor David Bell david@wiredinusa.com Features Editor (USA) Dorothy Fabian Features Editor (Europe) Gill Watson Publisher Caroline Sullens

Sales & Marketing (International) Sales Manager Jason Smith jason@wiredinusa.com +44 1926 834 684 Accounts Manager Julie Case juliecase@intras.co.uk

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wiredInUSA - June 2018

Diary Shows & Events 2018

june 6-8 June 2018 The 19 th China International Spring Industry Exhibition

June 11-13 June 2018 Wire & Cable Guangzhou Guangzhou, China www.wire-cable-china.com

Guangzhou, China www.julang.com.cn

October 23-26 October 2018 EuroBLECH Hanover, Germany www.euroblech.com September 26-29 September 2018 wire China 2018 Shanghai, China www.wirechina.net

november 27-29 November 2018 wire India Mumbai, India www.wire-india.com october 14-17 October 2018 IWCS 2018 Rhode Island, USA www.iwcs.org

For more info visit: www.wiredinusa.com/showinfo.php

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EASIER QUICKER LIGHTER Unique, original-content news and information for the domestic US wire and cable market.

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‘Upbeat’ Wire Expo M A K I N G T H E NEWS

An upbeat vibe for the future of the industry was the underlying feeling from the staging of Wire Expo, held in May at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee. More than 1,100 participants from 37 states and 17 countries attended the event, coinciding with the Wire Association International’s 88 th annual convention. Curt Cronin, former Navy SEAL, delivered an engaging keynote address entitled “Tapping into Your Potential: Attempting the Absurd and Achieving the Impossible.” John T Johnson, owner and president, Mid-South Wire Company, Nashville, and president of the American Wire Producers Association, followed the keynote address with a welcome to Nashville. His opening remarks emphasized the impact of challenges facing the industry such as imported steel tariffs, and the significance of

attracting new talent to the wire industry.

More than 175 companies exhibited, covering more than 90 product types including wire and cable making machinery, supplies and ancillary equipment, and industry services. The Ask the Expert Express and the live Production Solutions demonstrations remain popular activities on the exhibit floor. More than 450 people attended WAI’s welcome reception on Delta Island within the Gaylord campus, where entertainment was sponsored by James Monroe Wire & Cable Corp. WAI’s highest honors went to Mordica Memorial Award winner Gary L Spence; Donnellan Memorial Award winner and WAI Past President Bill Avise; President’s Award winner PatricioMurga; andWire Link Travelling Scholarship winner Chris Palisch.

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wiredInUSA - June 2018

Carbon-free venture gets underway

New smelter design from Elysis

Executives of Rio Tinto, Alcoa and Apple were joined by the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, and the premier of Québec, Philippe Couillard, to announce what was described as the “most significant innovation in the aluminum industry” in over a century. To advance larger scale development and commercialization of the new carbon-free aluminum smelting process, Alcoa and Rio Tinto are forming Elysis. The joint venture company will further develop the process with a technology package planned for sale in 2024. Elysis, which will be headquartered in Montreal with a research facility in Quebec, will develop and license the technology for retrofitting to existing smelters or new- build facilities. When fully developed and implemented, the process will eliminate direct greenhouse gas emissions from the smelting process and strengthen the

closely integrated Canada-US aluminum and manufacturing industry. Elysis will also sell proprietary anode and cathode materials, said to last over 30 times longer than traditional components. technology, developed by Alcoa, is currently producing metal at the Alcoa Technical Center, near Pittsburgh, where the process has been operating at different scales since 2009. The joint venture intends to invest up to $40 million (CAD) in the US, which would include funding to support the supply chain for the proprietary anode and cathode materials. The CEO of Elysis, Vincent Christ, has 30 years’ experience at Rio Tinto Aluminium, most recently serving as head of technology, research and development, and automation programs. He holds an engineering degree in electronics and industrial information technology. The patent-protected

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Faster trading in prospect

expansion is scheduled to open in late 2018. With over 90 network service providers and access to a range of transatlantic cables, the London Slough campus is one of the busiest network nodes in the UK. The center offers latency in the region of 30 milliseconds to New York and 4 milliseconds to Frankfurt, making it an ideal high-performance hub for electronic trading, as well as cloud and content service provision.

Equinix Inc, a global interconnection and data center company, is to expand the LD4 international business exchange™ (IBX ® ) data center at its London Slough campus. The new phase supports the continued growth of what is believed to be the world’s largest multi-asset class electronic trading ecosystem, consisting of a robust collection of interconnected execution venues, trading platforms, market data vendors, service providers, and buy-side and sell-side firms. The new $39 million

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Monet set to make an impression

The 10,556km Monet cable system connecting Boca Raton, Florida, to both Fortaleza and Santos, Brazil, is fully operational, establishingadigital gateway between the US and Brazil capable of delivering over 64Tb per second. The Monet system, designed and built on the SubCom Open Cables concept, uses the latest submarine technology to provide bandwidth design capacity and improved Internet latency performance. It features six fiber-pair cable and optical transmission technologies, with an initial design capacity of greater than, or equal to, 64Tb per second (100Gb/s x 100 wavelengths x six fiber-pairs). The introduction of commercial traffic and services using the undersea cable will improve current connectivity needs between Latin America and the US, and

offers a powerful platform and stable backbone to accommodate increased capacity demands in the future. Antonio Nunes, chairperson of the Monet executive committee, said: “The completion of the Monet submarine cable system is an extremely significant milestone for the market, by bringing a new generation of technology in submarine cables capable of facing the new challenge of digital evolution. The effort to bring this submarine cable to service with direct and low-latency connections will bring real benefits to the economies of the regions.” The Monet cable system is owned by Algar Telecom (a Brazilian telecom company and ISP), Angola Cables, Antel (the Uruguayan telecom company) and Google.

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Change to operations

Michelle Melsop

transition to be smooth and provide for a very strong and successful future for IWCS.”

IWCS Inc has appointed Michelle Melsop, CMP CEM, as senior operations manager.

Ms Melsop took up the position in March by observing the operation of the second annual UL and IWCS International Cable and Connectivity Symposium in Shanghai, China. She also contributed to the recent IWCS symposium committee meeting in April, where over 30 individuals from several countries met to establish the program for the IWCS 2018 conference in Providence, Rhode Island. “I was very impressed with both the conference in China and the process of paper selection in the development of an outstanding program for the IWCS 2018 conference,” said Ms Melsop. “I’m very excited to join the team.”

Ms Melsop comes to the position from the Plastics Industry Association where she was senior manager of conferences and logistics. Prior to that she was manager of events at the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA). She obtained her certification in exhibition management (CEM) in 2012 and certified meeting planner (CMP) in 2013. “Michelle brings ten years of association meeting and event planning experience to the position and will be a great addition to the team,” said Dave Kiddoo, IWCS executive director. “With the overlap of the two managers, Pat and Michelle, we expect the

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Transmission upgrade

Virginia Transmission Company Inc has announced plans to upgrade the electric transmission system in Jackson and Mason counties. The Ravenswood Area Improvements Project is a $60 million investment that includes rebuilding around 30 miles of 69kV transmission line and upgrading the associated facilities to ensure continued reliable electric service for customers.

modern and robust equipment. Improvements will reduce the likelihood of extended outages to customers and decrease restoration times if, and when, outages do occur. “Appalachian Power’s priority is providing our customerswith reliableserviceatanaffordable price,” said Phil Moye, an Appalachian Power spokesperson. “The work we are proposing in Jackson and Mason counties will reinforce our transmission systemwhile preparing the power grid to support future development.”

According to Appalachian Power, the project will replace structures from the 1950s with

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wiredInUSA - June 2018

Image: FirstEnergy Corp

New transmission line

FirstEnergy transmission vice president Carl Bridenbaugh said: “In recent years, a number of older power plants have closed across our region, while new sources of energy are being connected to the grid. This changing energy mix often requires new transmission lines to be built that can maintain service reliability and supply power, from where it is generated to where it is needed.” The project, costing over $50 million, is part of Energizing the Future, a multi-year investment initiative aimed at upgrading FirstEnergy’s transmission facilities using advanced equipment and technologies.

FirstEnergy is completing a transmission line project in northern Ohio, extending 28 miles between existing substations in Erie and Sandusky counties. The line will also connect a new substation, currently under construction near Bellevue, Ohio, giving grid operators added flexibility to help reduce the frequency and duration of power outages. Line construction began late last year after a FirstEnergy subsidiary, American Transmission Systems Inc (ATSI), obtained approval from the Ohio Power Siting Board. The new facilities were scheduled to be energized before June.

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Full ownership in view

Bekaert has reached an agreement in principle with the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan to buy its 33 percent equity share in the wire and fiber rope manufacturer Bridon-Bekaert Ropes Group (BBRG). A press release said that the ropes and advanced cords business, which became BBRG at the end of June 2016, will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Bekaert. “Taking full ownership ... fits within the ambitions and strategy of Bekaert to grow a global ropes and advanced cords business that will create significant value over time for customers worldwide and for the Bekaert Group.”

company to follow this direction as BBRG was established in a period that saw weak markets and integration challenges. “Taking full control ... will allow us to accelerate the turnaround efforts, drive greater synergies between BBRG and the Bekaert Group and take advantage of the complementary nature of the businesses.” He noted that the deal reflects Bekaert’s commitment to, and belief in, BBRG, and will enable Bekaert to focus on helping BBRG achieve its true potential. “I will personally take up the role of CEO of BBRG, alongside my existing role as CEO of Bekaert,” Mr Taylor added.

Bekaert CEO Matthew Taylor said in the release that it made sense for the

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Wind hub in Brooklyn

The Beta LaserMike brand has been faithfully serving the wire and cable industry for over 50 years and we have thousands of satisfied customers that rely on our measurement systems every day to improve quality, increase productivity and deliver manufacturing savings. We are committed to your success. Precision Measurement & Control Solutions wind is a prospective tenant at the South Brooklyn marine terminal. The terminal is to be redeveloped into a major shipping hub, creating 250 jobs in the near term. Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Development Corporation’s executive director, Ben Margolis, said: “Establishing a home for the emerging offshore wind industry on our working waterfront is a once-in-a-generation opportunity.” Construction of South Fork is scheduled to begin next year, with commercial operations starting in 2022.

According to the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), the US developer Deepwater Wind is considering an offshore wind hub in Brooklyn for its 90MW South Fork project and future developments. Deepwater Wind secured a 20-year power purchase agreement with the Long Island Power Authority in January 2017 for electricity from its wind farm. NYCEDC, a not-for-profit organization promoting economic growth across New York City’s five boroughs, said Deepwater

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GlobeNet has deployed a new 2,500km submarine cable linking Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo to Buenos Aires. The new infrastructure will connect Argentina to the GlobeNet network in Brazil, effectively linking the southern cone of South America to the USA and beyond. With infrastructure already deployed in Bermuda, Brazil, Colombia, the US and Venezuela, GlobeNet’s latest expansion is expected to attract OTTs, cloud providers and carrier customers. “Our submarine cable, designed to satisfy low latency and high capacity demands, will be the first new route to provide direct connectivity from Argentina to Brazil and the United States since 2001,” said Eduardo Falzoni, CEO of GlobeNet. GlobeNet has extended and upgraded its network infrastructure since the inception of its flagship 23,500km submarine cable system. The company recently announced a new level IVdata center in Barranquilla, Colombia, as well as a newcentral interconnection point (IPX) for the Brazilian network information center at GlobeNet’s Internet exchange point.

Southern cone link

The new subsea cable system will be ready for service in the first half of 2020.

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The fiber opticmanufacturer AFL has received a 2018 excellence in corporate responsibility award, presented by the South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance (SCMA). The award recognizes the positive contributions made to the local community by manufacturers. The three categories of the award are community involvement and philanthropy, environmental safety, and wellness and safety. Kurt Dallas, executive vice president of AFL, said: “Every year, we commit to being a good steward of our community, to support workforce development initiatives and to keep EHS a top priority. We are honored to receive this award, along with many other manufacturers in South Carolina, as it reaffirms these are the right focus areas that have measurable impact in the upstate and throughout the state.” AFL has an extensive community outreach program providing grants, sponsorships, volunteer projects, and disaster relief. Most notable of AFL’s achievements is its United Way campaign, making a $237,000 donation to the community (inclusive of associates’ donations and AFL’s match). More recently, AFL has launched its operational workforce program, working with high school students who gain manufacturing certificates and join AFL’s production workforce after graduation. AFL also partners with local community colleges to build apprentice programs, where trade students can gain classroom knowledge while working part-time to gain technical experience.

Corporate approach to responsibility

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Steel expansion

has an annual capacity of 120,000 tonnes, will be installed at Grupo Simec’s Pindamonghangaba, São Paulo plant. The Simec plant currently has a production capacity of 600,000 tonnes per year of liquid steel and 500,000 tonnes of rolled steel products, rod and wire rod. Including the latest acquisitions, Grupo Simec’s parent firm, ICH, will have 7.5 million tonnes per year production capacity of liquid steel between its factories in Mexico, Brazil, USA and Canada.

Grupo Simec has entered into a contract with Arcelor Mittal Brasil SA for the acquisition of two steel products plants, in Cariacica and Itauna, and for steel wire drawing equipment. Production capacity at the Cariacica plant is 600,000 tonnes per year of liquid steel and 450,000 of rolled steel products. Capacity of the Itauna plant is 120,000 tonnes per year of rolled steel products, and both plants produce light structural profiles and rods.

The steel wire drawn equipment, which

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wiredInUSA - June 2018

Gold award

Heather Burnett Gold, CEO and president of the Fiber Broadband Association, has won the 2018 Broadband Communities Cornerstone award for her vision of fiber broadband technology as key to sustainable communities.

business development manager – smart city/smart grid at Graybar, said of Heather Burnett Gold: “It has been my honor to see her extraordinary work, leadership, and fiber expertise first-hand over the years. I know I am not alone in celebrating Heather for this accomplishment.” “I am so touched to be presented with this award from this standout group,” said Heather. “I am immensely proud of the work I have done towards a better- connected world for our communities and our businesses, but I am also proud of the connections I have built with all of you in the telecommunications and fiber broadband industries. This is the culmination of seven years of hard work ensuring that more people have access to future-proof technology.”

Heather Burnett Gold

Each year, a Broadband Communities committee of industry leaders, analysts and writers bestows the awards in recognition of those with outstanding accomplishments related to delivering telecommunications for the benefit of the end user.

Scott Jackson, chairman of the Fiber Broadband Association board and

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EUROPE NEWS

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Image: Nexans

First quarter results show minor dip

Nexans is amongst the cable and wire companies announcing first quarter 2018 results. The company revealed that sales for the period amounted to €1,538 million (versus €1,570 million for the same quarter 2017). After a record performance in 2017, which saw a 23.8 percent sales increase in the first quarter of the year, high voltage project activities reported a 30.5 percent year-on- year sales decline. The main reasons for this contraction are that revenue is now recognized at a later stage of project completion (following theapplicationof IFRS 15) and that the timing of various projects in progress provides a less favorable picture than in 2017. The situation is expected to reverse in the second half year.

remained high in the quarter, following on from the strong levels seen in 2017.

Sales of industrial cables edged up 0.6 percent, with a 2.4 percent increase in automotive harnesses, a 36.7 percent decline for oil and gas sector cables, and a 4.4 percent rise for other industrial cables. The telecom and data segment reported a 2.3 percent overall contraction in sales, reflecting a slight 0.3 percent increase for LAN cables, a 2.1 percent drop for telecom infrastructure cables and an 11.8 percent decrease for submarine specialty cables. Commenting on the performance, Arnaud Poupart Lafarge, Nexans’ CEO, said that cable activities sales have picked up pace after a disappointing start to 2018, pointing to a gradual improvement as the year progresses.

Meanwhile output from the group’s submarine high voltage cable plants

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wiredInUSA - June 2018

Oil and gas get cable

Fiber acquisition

Image: www.rdm.com

Image: www.equinor.com

Reichle & De-Massari (R&M) has acquired Czech company Transportkabel – Dixi (TK Dixi) to enhance its fiber optic cable portfolio. R&M develops and manufactures fiber optic and metallic cables for power and communication applications in data centers, broadband networks, enterprise buildings and other infrastructure projects. The company hopes that this acquisition will provide the company with TK Dixi’s optic cable design and production techniques for a range of cable constructions suited to complete R&M’s strategic market segments. TK Dixi has itself been trading successfully in the Czech cable industry for over 20 years. The firm entered the growing fiber optics cable market in 2014, and now sells fiber optic cables to OEMs, distributors and end-users throughout Europe. Luděk Bednář, co-owner and managing director, commented: “TK Dixi has built up an excellent reputation in offering high quality andoften customizedcables with short lead time. There is an excellent fit between TK Dixi’s and R&M’s approach to the market.”

The cable-laying vessel NKT Victoria has begun laying cables to supply the Johan Sverdrup oil and gas field with power from shore. The starting point was the Johan Sverdrup converter station at Haugsneset near Kårstø, and by the end of May the vessel will have laid almost 200km of power cables. Afiber opticcable is bundledwith thepower cables to ensure reliable communication and enable monitoring and, when required, remote control of parts of the Johan Sverdrup field’s operations. The power cables will put Johan Sverdrup among the most carbon-efficient oil and gas fields in the world. Estimated at just 0.5kg of CO 2 per barrel, the emissions from Johan Sverdrup are about 20 times lower than the average on the Norwegian continental shelf, and 30 times lower than the international average. Additional measures were taken to reduce emissions during the Johan Sverdrup development; for example, NKT Victoria was designed to be supplied with power from shore while in harbor.

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Harnessing new additions

New vessel on order

Image: Claes Mellgren

Image: www.vard.com

AQ Group AB will acquire 100 percent of the shares of B3CG Interconnect Inc and its affiliate B3CG Interconnect USA Inc. B3CG is a supplier of complex electrical harnesses, high voltage cables, and electromechanical assemblies for various industries. The two companies have total net sales of about CAD$35 million with a profit margin in line with AQ. They employ around 300 people in their operations in Saint Eustache, Quebec, and in Plattsburgh, New York. “We are very excited about entering Canada and the USA. B3CG has a long history, with experienced management, and the company fits well in AQ and our business area [of] wiring systems. We have visited their biggest customers and received very good feedback, so we are very happy about this acquisition,” said Claes Mellgren, CEO of AQ Group. “AQ Group is a strong player in contract manufacturing, and it has subsidiaries with similar business to our own. AQ has strong core values, which fit well with our culture. We look positively to being part of an international group and we believe that it will support us in our growth ambitions,” commented François Demers, CEO of B3CG.

Norway-based shipbuilder Vard Holdings Ltd has secured a contract from the Prysmian Group for the design and construction of a new cable-laying vessel. The specialized vessel for advanced subsea operations is intended to be the most capable cable layer in its sector, with deep water installation capabilities at depths of over 2,000m and a high cable loading capacity in large cable rotating platforms. The vessel will be designed to perform complex installation operations, supported by a variety of burial systems including heavy duty ploughs and the latest positioning and seakeeping systems. Reduced environmental footprint is also a priority. With a design length of 172m and beam of 34m, the vessel will accommodate a crew of 120.

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wiredInUSA - June 2018

Phase four underway

Wire water treatment

Image: Asia Chang on Unsplash

Image: www.danieli.com

A solar field, part of phase four of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, will be constructed by Abengoa. The project will comprise three CSP 200MW plants, the parabolic basin complex and a 100MW solar tower. Abengoa will deliver the CSP technology and will be the major subcontractor of the solar field on a turnkey basis for the main contractor, Shanghai Electric. The 700MW CSP project, made up of the parabolic basin complex and the solar tower, is being developed by the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) and Arabian Company for Water and Power project (ACWA Power) with an investment of $3.8 billion. Shanghai Electric was given the engineering,procurementandconstruction (EPC) contract of the CSP project in April. The CSP facility is scheduled to begin operations during the fourth quarter of 2020.

Nghi Son has ordered two water treatment plants from Danieli to complete a project for two casters and high speed rolling mills for bars and wire rod. The plants will be installed in Nghi Son Economic Zone in Thanh Hóa province, Vietnam. In addition to the open and closed circuits, the plant will be equipped with Danieli solutions to treat the contact water (Zero Scale Pit™) with specially designed equipment (Dan-Dredge™) that allows quick sedimentation of the larger, heavier and dangerous particles of scale, and their continuous extraction, with drainage and discharge into a skip or truck. The advantage, over the traditional scale pit solution, is said to be a significant saving in capital expenditure on civil works and a substantial reduction of installation time.

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Fourth Serbian operation

Stainless transaction

Image: www.leoni.com

Image: www.outokumpu.com

German auto cable and harness producer Leoni AG has announced a fourth plant in Serbia. In April 2018 Leoni formally opened the second phase of its third development at Niš in southern Serbia. The Leoni Wiring Systems plant, producing wire harnesses for an unnamed premium car maker, currently employs a 1,200 strong workforce. The company has now revealed it will start work this summer on the site of its fourth facility, in the central Serbian city of Kraljevo, where it will produce cables for Mercedes cars. According to Clemens Sachs, managing director of Leoni’s Serbian operations, this new facility will represent the biggest investment that Leoni has yet made in Serbia. It will cover an area of 45,000m 2 and employ between 4,000 and 5,000 workers. The planned site is north of Leoni’s concentrationof operations in southeastern Serbia. The firm’s original plant, established in 2009, was at Prokuplje while a second unit was opened five years later in nearby Malošište. The third plant at Niš is located slightly further north of these facilities. When Leoni completes its planned Kraljevo facility, the company is expected to become Serbia’s largest manufacturing employer with over 11,000 employees.

Outokumpu and Sandvik have signed an agreement for Outokumpu to take full ownership of the Fagersta Stainless wire rod mill in Sweden. Fagersta Stainless is currently a 50/50 joint venture between Outokumpu and Sandvik Materials Technology. Fagersta Stainless manufactures and distributes special stainless steel wire rod. In 2017, the company’s stainless steel deliveries amounted to 52,000 tonnes. Fagersta’s wire rod range complements the production by Outokumpu’s ASR wire rod mill in Sheffield, UK, and Outokumpu plans to further develop both units. The transaction will be executed in two phases, with Outokumpu’s ownership increasing to 90 percent at the end of June 2018, and to 100 percent at the end of 2019. Completion of the transaction is subject to the customary closing conditions.

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wiredInUSA - June 2018

ASIA & AFRICA NEWS

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Aluminum development

Odisha’s aluminum park project at Angul, jointly promoted by National Aluminium Company (Nalco) and state- owned Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco), is threatened with the loss of an investor. Bahrain-based Midal Cables is seeking a 25-year commitment for molten aluminum supplies from Nalco, but has been offered a commitment of only five years. “Unless Midal Cables get a word on the long-term investments, they would not be keen to hold on their investment,” said a source close to the development. Midal’s annual requirement is 25,000 tonnes. Nalco has previously promised to provide 50,000 tonnes each year to all downstream units who install their units at the aluminum park.

annual capacity of 60,000 tonnes. Grid Conductors Ltd, a subsidiary of Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL), has proposed an aluminum and aluminum alloy conductor unit in Odisha, with further interest from Gupta Power Infrastructure Ltd to set up a facility for high tension cables within the aluminum park. Mumbai-based Hind Aluminium Industries is to install a facility to manufacture 40,000 tonnes per year of aluminum conductors, employing 200 people. The aluminum park is planned as a complete industrial entity, fully equipped with logistics infrastructure, training center, park administration and a display and trade services facility. The park would also contain an aluminum product evaluation center with a tool room, testing, simulation and evaluation facilities, processing hall and prototype development facility.

Midal Cables has proposed a rod and wire conductor unit at the park, with an

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wiredInUSA - June 2018

Home grown cables

Connecting Nigeria’s hinterland

Image: www.tapco.ae

Ducab Group has announced that a project for the Taweelah B power station in Abu Dhabi, owned by Tapco, is the first 400kV circuit to enter service using cables manufactured within the GCC. The circuit is a critical component in helping Tapco provide a secure electricity supply for the Emirates. The 400kV cable circuit, completed two months ahead of schedule, is said to utilize leading energy technology and operates at the highest voltage in the region — 1,000 times the voltage of a domestic power socket. Regarding the project, Dale Huntington, MD of Tapco, said: “One of the key reasons we awarded this project to Ducab HV was the challenging timeline, and to complete the project two months ahead of schedule shows the real benefit of having a world- class local supplier.” Ducab HV is the first dedicated high voltage (60kV to 150kV) and extra high voltage (220kV to 500kV) power cable manufacturing facility in the Middle East. Ducab HV is a joint venture, established between Ducab, DEWA and the department of energy in Abu Dhabi.

Globacom, of Nigeria, has awarded a contract to Huawei for a second fiber optic submarine cable to run between Lagos and southern Nigeria. The new cable, to be known as Glo 2, is expected to be completed within 18 months. It will have 12 terabit capacity per second and span 850km, providing last- mile connectivity to businesses in southern Nigeria and beyond. The plan for theGlo 2 project was launched at a contract signing ceremony between Globacom and Huawei. Globacom’s regional director for technical affairs, Sanjib Roy, said that the cable will contain three fiber pairs, with the first pair connecting Lagos directly to the southern part of Nigeria, with terrestrial extension to other parts of the country for redundancy and maintenance purposes. The second will be equipped with eight switchable branching units (BUs), to deliver high capacity to offshore oil stations and communities, while the third pair will be equipped with two switchable branching units to deliver high capacity to Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea.

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Winding wire in eastern Europe

Connectivity boost for Pacific region

Image: hawaikicable.co.nz

LS Group is to establish a production operation in Serbia to take advantage of the European winding wire market. Superior Essex, LS Group’s US cable making company, broke ground for the project to build a winding wire plant in Zrehanin, about 90km north of Belgrade, in March. Superior Essex plans to build 42 production lines, each capable of producing 12,000 tons per year of winding wire, by the end of 2018 with production beginning next year. At the ground breaking ceremony Serbia’s president Vučić extended thanks to LS Group’s investments, adding that Serbia will provide full support to create an environment suitable for foreign companies’ investment. LS Group chairman Christopher Koo, said LS will establish a production operation in eastern Europe, which is emerging as a new route into the European market. Koo added that it is hoped to make Serbia an eastern European winding wire production hub. In 2017 LS Cable and System set up an EV part production operation in Poland and a sales operation in France.

Hawaiki Submarine Cable LP and TE SubCom have announced that the final splice of the Hawaiki cable has been made, with the system on schedule to be in service in June 2018. With the final splice and all cable station installations complete, the Hawaiki system has end-to-endconnectivity and is entering its final system testing phase. The 15,000km cable connects Sydney, Australia; Mangawhai Heads, New Zealand; Tafuna, American Samoa; Kapolei, Hawaii; and Pacific City, Oregon, including stubbed branching units to facilitate future connections to New Caledonia, Fiji and Tonga. “The TE SubCom and Hawaiki teams have worked well together to complete the Hawaiki cable system,” said Sanjay Chowbey, president, TE SubCom. “We look forward to this system being completed on time.”

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An AI first

Indonesian project underway

NEC Corporation has announced successful transmission tests on a commercial subsea cable using artificial intelligence (AI) and probabilistic shaping at a modulation of 64QAM. In a joint research publication with Google, NEC demonstrated that the Faster open subsea cable can be upgraded to a spectral efficiency of 6 bits per second per hertz (b/s/Hz) over an 11,000km segment. This represents a capacity of over 26 terabits per second (higher than originally planned for the cable, for no additional wet plant capital expenditure). The resultwas achievedusingnear-Shannon probabilistic-shaping at a modulation of 64QAM. For the first time on a live cable, AI was used to analyze data for the purpose of nonlinearity compensation (NLC). NEC developed an NLC algorithm based on data-driven deep neural networks to estimate the signal nonlinearity. “Other approaches toNLChaveattempted to solve thenonlinear Schrodinger equation, which requires the use of very complex algorithms,” said NEC’s Toru Kawauchi, general manager, submarine network division.

The commencement ceremony at Indonesia’s Suryacipta Park. Photograph courtesy of ZTT

China’s ZTT Group is developing a new facility in Indonesia. PT ZTT Cable Indonesia (ZTT Indonesia) celebrated with a grand commencement ceremony in Indonesia’s Suryacipta Park. Xue Jiping, director of ZTT Group, and Ye Zhifeng, general manager of ZTT Indonesia, took part in a ground breaking ceremony and expressed gratitude for all the guests’ support and help during the preparation to construct ZTT Indonesia. Mr Ye said that ZTT has provided product and system solutions for hundreds of electric power companies and communication operators from its 48 branch offices worldwide. The group has registered subsidiaries in the US and Germany, and overseas plants in India, Brazil, Uzbekistan and Indonesia.

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Securing supply in Zambia

Anything but standard for Asian manufacturer

ZTT’s Zambian project department and Zesco have made the on-site handover of a 33kV cable EPC project at the Bird Cage substation, in Zambia. The event was attended by the general manager, project manager and South Africa supervisor of Zesco, as well as all the members of the project department. Zesco’s general manager praised ZTT for its full preparation of the project, and said that people in Zambian urban areas were looking forward to a reliable power supply to improve their lives and production conditions. He hoped ZTT will continue to contribute to the construction of Zambian power systems on the basis of this 33kV cable EPC project. This project is located in the center of Zambia’s capital, Lusaka, and connects five substations, with a total length of 15km. The on-site handover of the EPC project. Photograph courtesy of ZTT

Image: davis-standard.com

Since 2012 Cooper Standard, a supplier of automotive components, has installed over 50 Davis-Standard extruders at its plants in China, India and Korea for processing a wide range of materials, but primarily thermoplastic vulcanizates (TPV) and thermoplastic elastomers (TPE). Before 2012 Cooper Standard was already a Davis- Standard customer of longstanding in the US. Davis-Standard (Suzhou) Plastics Packaging Machinery Co Ltd has been instrumental in the sales and installations in Asia, offering regional support and service, and enabling Cooper Standard to purchase extruders directly fromSuzhouusingChinesecurrency. The Suzhou location has continued to expand its scope of services since opening in the fall of 2012, which has significantly impacted Davis-Standard’s ability to better serve customers in Asia. Davis-Standard supplies proprietary TPV and TPE extruder arrangements for Cooper Standard, with extruder sizes ranging from 32mm to 100mm (1.25 to 4 inches).

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Products, Machines & Technology

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New twist for robots A new twisted-pair cable from Hradil Special Cables is designed to offer a robust alternative to standard coaxial cable. Targeted applications include power supply systems and data transmission for underground TV inspection robots. Coaxial cables usually transmit the camera signals when performing sewer inspection work by robot. This exposes the cables to very high mechanical loads, and not only because sometimes brute force is applied to pull the cables around corners or protruding edges.

The high mechanical robustness of the new cable is due to its design: it absorbs tensile and torsional forces, evenly distributing them across the different construction elements. Its tensile strength exceeds 2,500N, and its bending radius is 80mm. It is stranded free from strain with a fixed lay length, and features an open braided shield made from high strength textile yarn embedded into the PUR cable jacket. In the double-layered twisted-pair cable with 9x0.5mm², 2x0.09mm² and 2x0.15mm², the layers are separated by a special non-woven fabric to ensure smooth slide properties. Hradil’s new twisted-pair cable is low-adhesion and resistant to hydrolysis, oil, UV radiation and microbes.

Variation on a cable theme

TE SubCom has started production of the latest version of its SL17 cable, the A1 variant. The new cable type features a similar structure to the standard SL17 cable product, but with a more compact assembly. The design has been refined for specific applications, with a new nominal transient tensile strength optimized to 50kN. Over 3,000km of the A1 variant has already been produced, with more than 10,000km under contract.

S S The new twisted-pair cable from Hradil Special Cables

If a heavy robot has an accident it is pulled out of the sewer using the cable.

The mechanical forces can inflict severe damage on coaxial cables and, as these forces act directly on its central coaxial conductor, eventual core fracture or core damage is inevitable.

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The Dig-It is a tracked, remotely operated vehicle, using its tracks as its primary method of propulsion. The trencher can be operated in two modes, jetting and chain cutting.In 2016, Ørsted contracted Van Oord to transport, install and bury infield cables for the Borkum Riffgrund 2 offshore wind farm.

“Our … SL17 cable product has been an industry standard for years, known for its reliability and flexibility,” said Dean Wahlberg, vice president of manufacturing operations at TE SubCom. “Designed in response to customer demands we’re pleased to bring the new A1 product to market, and are looking forward to adding this cable to our already comprehensive list of available products.” To meet demand for the new cable, an additional power conductor line has been added to SubCom’s NewHampshire factory to increase its production capabilities. Digging in Van Oord’s new trencher, the Dig-It, has expanded the company’s cable laying and burial capabilities with remote-controlled trench jetting and cutting. Van Oord used the Dig-It for the first time in March, on the Borkum Riffgrund 2 project in the German sector of the North Sea. The Dig-It, also known as the Q trencher 1600, is the most powerful of the Q trencher series with a total installedpower of 1,200kW.

Van Oord deployed its cable-laying vessel, Nexus , to install the infield cables and interlink cables to the Borkum Riffgrund 1 offshore substation, and the Dig-It began burying the cables in May 2018. S S Expanded cable laying and burial capabilities with the new Dig-It

The cable installation works should be finished in July 2018.

Once a cable has been laid on the seabed, the Dig-It will bury it to the required depth.

Underground development

Depending on the configuration and soil characteristics, the trencher can bury cables down to 3m.

Canada’s Lorex Technology has released an outdoor, underground Category 6

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the National Electric Code (NEC) and the Canadian Electric Code (CEC) for safe use throughout walls and ceilings.

cable. The new cable is said to offer faster transfer speed capabilities than older Cat5/ Cat5e models, has the benefit of weather- shielded cable jacketing and is CMR riser rated. The Lorex Cat6 outdoor extension cable will transfer up to10Gbper secondat adistance of 55m, compared with the previous 1Gbps limit for Cat5e cables.

They can also be strung through non- plenum areas.

The cables can be buried without conduit, but do need to be buried at least 24 feet deep.

Additional speed is due to an increase in frequency.

Cat6 cables have higher frequency rates, at 250Mhz per second.

This translates into 250 million cycles per second, meaning that data is transmitted at twice the speed of older cable models. However, there is no increase in crosstalk as the twisted cable design and stronger shielding reduce interference from other electromagnetic signals. The wiring of the Cat6 cable is designed to be run underground or outside, protected by a UV-treated thermoplastic casing to withstand the elements and sealed against direct exposure to soil and moisture. The cable is also fire-resistant and has passed a vertical burn test, ensuring flames should not travel more than 8 feet along the cable.

The Lorex Cat6 cables are approved by

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EDITORIAL Index

Abengoa

32 24 10 12 12 12 17 10 31 25 31 31 20 39 32 39 21 36 10 11 26 18 36 22

Grupo Simec

25 37 41 36 16 33 42 37 35 38 29 35 33 31 30 10 33 36 42 31 17

AFL

Hawaiki Submarine Cable LP

Alcoa

Hradil Special Cables

Algar Telecom Angola Cables

Huawei IWCS Inc Leoni AG

Antel

Appalachian Power

Lorex Technology

Apple

LS Group

AQ Group AB

Midal Cables

Arcelor Mittal Brasil SA B3CG Interconnect Inc B3CG Interconnect USA Inc

NEC Corporation

Nexans

Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation

Bekaert

Cooper Standard

Outokumpu

Danieli

Prysmian Group

Davis-Standard Deepwater Wind

Reichle & De-Massari

Rio Tinto Sandvik

Ducab Group

Elysis

Tapco

Equinix Inc

TE SubCom Van Oord

37, 41

Fiber Broadband Association

FirstEnergy Globacom GlobeNet

Vard Holdings Ltd

Virginia Transmission Company Inc

ZTT Group

38, 39

Google

12, 38

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ADVERTISING Index

AIM Inc

27 21 11 17 25 23 13 19 8

Beta LaserMike (An NDC Technologies Brand)

Clinton Instrument Company

DeWAL Madem

Messe Düsseldorf Paramount Die

Sikora

Windak Group

Wire & Plastic Machinery Corp

14, 15

Zumbach Electronic

2

Marketing: Contact Jason Smith, wiredInUSA, Tel: +44 (0) 1926 834684 Email: jason@wiredinusa.com News: Contact David Bell, Editor, wiredInUSA, Tel: +44 (0) 1926 334137 Email: david@wiredinusa.com

The Professional Publishers Association Member

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