12/6/21 – NKT plans to extend its presence in Poland with a local execution hub that will prepare it for the market opportunities driven by the country’s green transformation in Poland.
A press release said that NKT is now expanding its local presence with an execution center to prepare for a growing demand for both on- and offshore power cables. The center will be located in Gdynia, Poland, close to the Baltic Sea where several offshore wind farms are expected to be located.
The execution center is not a production site but a hub from where a company can execute local projects, both onshore and offshore. “The idea is to first hire cable jointers for installation projects where they are connecting the produced cable lengths. At a later stage, the plan is to hire more project-oriented people to drive offshore wind projects, so the center development is linked to future projects we win in Poland,” a company spokesman said.
NKT expects to hire the first power cable jointers by the end of 2021 and will hire additional people to the execution center as the potential market opportunities emerge with the first offshore wind projects materializing in the coming years. With two existing manufacturing sites in Poland specializing in building wires, low-voltage power cables and PVC compounds, NKT is also well-positioned to meet the growing demand for power cables driven by the expected reinforcement of the Polish power grid.
“We already have a strong footprint in Poland, and it is natural for us to take steps to strengthen our position in the country with the new execution hub,” said NKT CEO Alexander Kara. He noted that NKT is preparing to support Poland’s national ambition to install up to 11 GW of offshore wind capacity in the Baltic Sea by 2040.

LS Cable & System President & CEO Myung Roe-Hyun announced that the company has opened a new cable plant in Poland, its first production base in Europe.

A press release said that the plant is the first such one for a South Korean company in Europe, “the home of cable.” The plant produces parts for electric vehicle batteries and optical cables for communication. More than 100 people, including Cha-Yup Koo, chairman of LS Cable & System; Roe-Hyun; Lee Dong-Wook, CEO of LS C & S Poland; Dariusz Kucharski, mayor of Dzierzoniow; and Mira Sun, Korean ambassador to Poland, attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

“LS C & S is pushing ahead with its localization and regional base strategy,” Roe-Hyun said. “The Polish plant will serve as the key base for advancing into Europe, and transform the company into a total cable company by adding the power cable business.”
The release said that Poland has very roads and power grids, and the Polish government is known to fully support investment of foreign capital with various tax incentives. Also, the company said that the nation’s geographic location is favorable to export to other European countries and its excellent workforce availability are important reasons for selecting Poland.

LS C & S established a subsidiary that produces parts for electric vehicle batteries (LSEVP) in Poland in November 2017. LSEVP can produce parts for 300,000 electric vehicles annually, and is planning to increase supplies to European automakers starting with LG Chem in nearby Wroclaw at the end of this year.

LS C & S established its optical cable production subsidiary (LSCP) next to its LSEVP plant in February 2018 as the European optical cable market has grown rapidly. It is the third optical cable plant of LS C & S, following the plants it built in Gumi, Korea and Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam.

LSCP began production last April and has proven that it can produce three million fiber km a year—about 7% of the European market—and has since been supplying its products to key European carriers in Italy, France, etc. With the completion of the Polish plant, LS C & S now has a total of 19 business sites at home and abroad, including nine overseas in Vietnam, China and the U.S.