Kris-Tech Wire has completed a multi-year upgrade of its Houston, Texas facility. The U.S.-based copper wire manufacturer began operations at the Houston site in January 2022. Since then, the company has expanded the facility by 60,000 square feet and increased its presence in the Gulf Coast and Midwest regions.

A press release said that, as part of the upgrade, Kris-Tech expanded its sales and customer service teams based at the Houston location, increased storm stock and high-volume inventory and upgraded shipping capabilities. These improvements enable faster shipments, including critical materials for emergencies, with some deliveries occurring in as little as one to two days.

The warehouse carries Kris-Tech’s line of electrical utility and tracer wire products, as well as PV wire and cathodic protection cable. Custom orders continue to be produced at the company’s Rome, New York headquarters, but the Houston site can now ship key materials directly to sites within a day for certain requests.

Per the company, the Houston site’s location near Beltway 8 and I-45 allows for convenient customer pickups and rapid distribution to key regional markets. Founded in 1984, Kris-Tech manufactures wire products for the building, commercial, and utility sectors in the U.S.

NKT reports that the company was named the preferred bidder to provide the 525 kV high-voltage direct current (HVDC) power cable system for the interconnector Eastern Green Link 3 (EGL3).

A press release said that the joint venture project announced by SSEN Transmission and National Grid Electricity Transmission will link the power grids in Scotland and England, with a route length estimated to be about 680 km. The EGL3 project will connect Scotland and England, and benefit Wales by reinforcing the resilience and flexibility of the wider Great Britain grid that operates across all three nations.

The long-distance subsea link will also help move clean power from areas of rich renewable generation, furthering the U.K.’s transition to a lower-carbon future. “Appointing NKT as preferred bidder ... marks a significant milestone for EGL3,” said EGL3 Deputy Project Director James Johnson. “The project will be vital in unlocking Scotland’s vast renewable energy resources, ensuring they can reach homes and businesses across Great Britain, while strengthening the resilience of the transmission network. This announcement is another important step as we work to deliver a network for net zero.”

To celebrate its grand opening, Southwire recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the company’s new industrial plant in Bremen, Indiana, that was attended by company team members, executives and representatives from the Bremen community.

A press release said that Southwire began operating in Bremen in 2014, and that its campus now consists of four manufacturing facilities that cover a combined 1.4 million sq ft. The location primarily serves Southwire’s utility and industrial businesses, supporting some of the company’s largest customers. With the addition of the new Bremen industrial building to the campus—spanning approximately 428,000 sq ft—Southwire continues to grow and further support its markets and customers.

The state-of-the-art facility gives Southwire the opportunity to support a wide variety of growing vertical markets. These include industrial, telecom, data center, and factory automation sectors. “It’s been amazing to see the Bremen Industrial plant come to life thanks to the hard work of the Southwire team and the support of our community partners,” said Niles Voelkel, Bremen plant manager. “We’re incredibly grateful to everyone who helped make this happen.”

Southwire expects to hire around 55 team members this year to work at the facility, with plans for continued employment growth in the coming years. “Thanks to the talent, the community and the unwavering support in this area, we’re confident that Bremen will continue on a very positive trajectory,” said Clint Thompson, vice president of process technology and data optimization. “This campus is more than just a facility. It’s a testament to our commitment to innovation, modernization and, most importantly, our people. Bremen is a great place to be, and we’re excited about the continued success we’ll achieve together.”

LS Cable & System has won a contract valued at approximately $115 million to supply submarine cables for the Formosa 4 offshore wind project in Taiwan.

A press release said that the order from project developer Synera Renewable Energy, calls for the delivery of submarine cables by 2028, when installation will begin. The specific types of cable and how many km were not disclosed, but such projects usually call for inter-array cables to connect the wind turbines and the offshore substation, and from there export cables to connect that to onshore grid connection points, typically at a much higher voltage. Previous similar LS Cable orders for Taiwan offshore wind have included both 66 kV inter-array and 220 kV export cable packages.

The Formosa 4 wind farm will be located about 18 km off the coast of Miaoli County, in western Taiwan, and is expected to have a capacity of 495 MW once operational. The wind farm will use 35 turbines and will require both offshore and onshore substations.

The deal represents LS Cable’s 10th consecutive offshore wind cable order in Taiwan since first entering the market in 2019, continuing its involvement as a major cable supplier in the region’s energy transition initiatives. The company previously supplied cables for eight projects in Taiwan’s first phase of offshore wind development, and with this latest contract has now secured early orders in the second phase for both the Fengmiao and Formosa 4 projects.

Company representatives attribute their successful run in Taiwan to continued collaboration with leading global renewable energy developers and a strengthening track record for project execution.

Hellenic Cables, the cables segment of Cenergy Holdings, has been awarded a turnkey contract from a Greek state-regulated entity for a new 150 kV cable interconnection between Igoumenitsa and Corfu.

A press release said that the strategic project includes the design, manufacturing, installation and commissioning of 18 km of submarine and 13 km of underground cables to further reinforce the reliability and capacity of the national power grid. The order is from the Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO), which is responsible for operating, maintaining, and developing the Hellenic Electricity Transmission System. It oversees some 11,000 km of transmission lines across mainland Greece and the islands.

Igoumenitsa is a major port city in northwestern Greece, while Corfu is a Greek island just offshore in the Ionian Sea, near the Albanian border. The cable will be made at the company’s facilities in Corinth and Thiva. “We are proud to support IPTO in enhancing Greece’s energy infrastructure,” said Hellenic Cables General Manager Kostas Savvakis. “This project is another milestone in our journey of engineering excellence and innovation.”

Last November, IPTO awarded Hellenic Cables a turnkey contract for 38 km of 150 kV XLPE underground and submarine cables to enhance the electrical interconnections between Kefalonia-Zakynthos and Lefkada-Kefalonia, the Ionian islands in Greece. In 2023, the company announced an €80 million investment program focused on expanding its submarine cable production capacity at the Corinth plant and upgrading land cable output at Thiva.

The Rhône Group, a U.S.-based global private equity firm, has acquired Copperweld Bimetallics (Copperweld) from Kinderhook Industries for an undisclosed price.

A Sept. 9 press release from Kinderhook—which acquired Copperweld in 2019 from THL Credit Advisors—reported the sale. Copperweld, founded in 1915, was described as the sole U.S. manufacturer dedicated to copper-clad (CCS) and aluminum-clad (CCA) wire. Its products are used in building wire, utilities, infrastructure, renewable energy and mobile technology markets.

Based in Fayetteville, Tennessee, Copperweld’s business includes additional plants in Texas and the U.K., and a distribution center in Belgium, with total employment near 400. Copperweld will continue to operate under its current management.

Kinderhook noted that during its ownership, Copperweld grew into a $65 million business by scaling operations and acquisitions, which included the 2020 purchase of Seminole Wire & Cable Co. Kinderhook continues to hold two distributors of wire, Kingwire and Cameron Wire & Cable, the latter of which also provides value-added services.

The Rhône Group is a global private equity firm with about $11 billion in assets under management, specializes in middle-market and larger investments across industrials, consumer, energy, materials, and healthcare sectors. This marks its lone activity for wire and cable.

Denmark’s NKT has signed a contract with Energinet to deliver an HVDC power cable system for the offshore interconnector linking the Bornholm Energy Island to the power grid on Zealand.

A press release said that Energinet, a Danish transmission system operator (TSO), selected NKT to provide the 525 kV high-voltage direct current (HVDC) on- and off-shore power cable systems for the Danish connection to the Bornholm Energy Island. The contract, valued at approximately $757 million, includes the design, manufacture and installation of a power cable system that includes a 200 km offshore route and a 16.8 km onshore route.

NKT will produce the power cables at its high-voltage factory in Karlskrona, Sweden, and is located close to the installation site. Bornholm Energy Island is a landmark renewable energy project located in the Baltic Sea, designed to receive up to 3.8 GW of offshore wind power from planned offshore wind farms. The energy will be transmitted to Germany and Denmark via two HVDC offshore interconnector systems.

With this award from Energinet, NKT will connect the energy island to both the Danish and German power grids. This follows the turnkey contract awarded to NKT in 2023 as part of a large framework agreement with German TSO 50Hertz to connect the island to the German grid.

“Bornholm Energy Island is a key project for Europe to enhance energy security and the exchange of renewable energy,” said NKT President and CEO Claes Westerlind “With this award, we reaffirm our strong commitment to building the sustainable and secure energy infrastructure Europe needs, and demonstrate our proven high-voltage power cable capabilities.”

Offshore installation is planned to be carried out by the new vessel, NKT Eleonora, which is currently under construction. Once operational in 2027, the vessel will be one of the most advanced and fuel-efficient cable layers in the industry.