wiredinUSA August 2020

Small signs of recovery, post-pandemic

Scottish wind farm contract

Photo by Ra Dragon on Unsplash

Image courtesy of Hellenic Cables

Analysts from ResearchAndMarkets.com have predicted that copper prices could stabilize in future quarters, despite a recent surge in value to pre-pandemic levels. Three-month copper futures on the London Metal Exchange had rebounded past the $6,000 threshold by the end of June. The article, “Recovery in the copper scrap market will lead to reduced demand for cathode post COVID-19”, explains that the recent recovery was influenced by various factors, including the pace of China’s economic recovery, rising demand for renewable energy and electric vehicles, and financial stimulus measures from global central banks such as the US Federal Reserve and the People’s Bank of China. Another factor influencing the quick recovery in prices is the disruption to copper scrap trading. Copper scrap trading was particularly affected by the COVID-19 crisis, leading to a shortage of scrap metal. China increased its imports of copper cathode to make up for the shortfall, but it is likely that recovery in the scrap market will lead to reduced demand for cathode and have a stabilizing effect on copper prices.

Hellenic Cables SA has a contract to supply 66kV inter-array cables and accessories for the 1,075MW Seagreen offshore wind farm project, 27km off the Scottish coast. The company will supply Seaway 7, the renewables unit of the engineering services provider Subsea 7 SA. Seaway 7 is responsible for the engineering, procurement, construction and installation of the foundations and inter-array cables. Hellenic Cables will design, manufacture, test and supply 320km of 66kV XLPE- insulated cables, produced at its submarine cables plant in Corinth, Greece. Delivery is planned for early 2022, and construction is scheduled to complete in 2022/23. UK utility SSE plc recently took the final investment decision for the Seagreen project, in which Total SA, the French oil and gas company, will acquire a 51percent interest. SSE will rename the Seagreen phases II and III to Berwick Bank and Marr Bank, respectively, to distinguish them from the more advanced Seagreen I.

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wiredInUSA - August 2020