South Korea’s LS Cable & System (LS C&S) reported that it has signed an agreement to supply high-voltage submarine cable to Ørsted for renewable energy projects in Taiwan, where it notes that it has done extremely well.
A press release said that LS C&S will supply the cable for Denmark’s Ørsted—which it has partnered successfully with—for use in its Greater Changhua 2b and 4 offshore wind projects in Taiwan. Located 35 to 60 km from the Changhua coast in western Taiwan, it will be among the largest offshore wind farms in the Asia-Pacific region when it is completed at the end of 2025, able to generate 920 MW of renewable energy.
With the latest order, LS C&S has supplier rights for all eight projects of the Taiwan’s Phase 1 Offshore Windfarm Construction Projects. The accumulated amount of orders since 2019 are worth approximately 1 trillion won (about $776 million).
Taiwan is planning to complete the construction of offshore wind farms with total output of 5.5 GW through the first phase of the project by 2025 and will build additional offshore wind farms for an additional output of 15 GW by 2035. “We expect additional orders to be placed from Taiwan and estimate that the submarine cable market will be worth around 3 trillion won (about $2.328 billion),” an LS C&S spokesperson said.
The release said that LS C&S expects to see further positive results from its relationship with South Korea’s KT Submarine. Last December, LS C&S paid about $19.3 million to acquire 16% of the share of KT Submarine, an underwater construction firm that provides installation and repair services for submarine cable.
LS C&S notes it also has a call option that it can exercise that would enable it to be the largest shareholder in the company. Further, there are only about five companies in the world capable of both submarine cable manufacturing and construction, and LS C&S is the only company in Korea to be capable of such services.
LS Cable & System (LS C&S) has completed what it described as Asia’s largest high-voltage direct current (HVDC) underwater cable production plant in Donghae, Gangwon Province, South Korea.
A press release said that the Donghae plant, named Submarine Building 4, is a 172-m-tall vertical continuous vulcanization (VCV) tower with a total floor area spanning 34,816 sq m. Approximately $141 million was spent since construction that started in July 2021.
Since building South Korea’s first submarine cable plant in 2008, LS C&S has made significant investments in its submarine business. The company also recently purchased stakes in KT Submarine, a submarine cable maker, becoming the largest shareholder (43.8%).
“The completion of this HVDC plant will serve as an accelerator for growth in the era of energy transition and the rise of the power industry,” said LS C&S CEO Koo Bon-gyu. “We will contribute to the advancement of the electric power industry through the construction of efficient energy networks and the enhancement of national competitiveness.”
Last December, LS C&S won a contract to supply HVDC cables to the Vanguard Wind Power Complex in the U.K., Korea’s largest cable deal signed to date in Europe.
More than 100 key persons—including LS Group Chairman Koo Ja-eun, LS Corp, CEO Myung Roe-hyun and LS C&S CEO Koo Bon-kyu —attended the completion ceremony.
South Korea’s LS Cable & System (LS C&S) has won an order valued at $167 million to supply high-voltage, direct current (HVDC) cables for the Norfolk Boreas Offshore Wind Farm in the U.K.
A press release said the LS C&S order is from Sweden’s Vattenfall AB, which is one of Europe’s largest producers and retailers of electricity and heat. The order calls for 320 kV cables that will lie under the sea. The underground cables will use cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) as an insulating material, which it described as a first.
Per multiple media reports, the Norfolk Boreas offshore cable corridor, using about 96 km, will include export cables to deliver the electricity supplied to the offshore substations to landfall that will be in the Happisburgh village in Norfolk county. The onshore part of the offshore wind farm development will include the installation of underground cables between an onshore substation related to the project and an existing substation of the national grid. The onshore cable corridor is expected to be 63 km.
Located 47 km off the Norfolk coast, Norfolk Boreas is the first of two stages of Vattenfall’s Norfolk Offshore Wind Zone. Per DEME Offshore, which is part of the project consortium with LS C&S, they have also been named a preferred supplier for the second part: the Norfolk Vanguard. Each wind farm will have a capacity of 1.8 GW.
“Only a handful of firms have succeeded in developing XLPE cables defined by easy installation, connection, maintenance and repair,” an LS Cable & System official said. “The cables are increasingly emerging as a mainstream product in the renewable industries of Europe and North America.”
LS Cable & System announced on Oct. 20 that it has won a cable contract valued at approximately $166 million to supply the Boreas wind farm in the North Sea of the U.K., the largest ever order from Europe received by a South Korean cable company.
Per the announcement, the Boreas offshore wind farm is being developed by Sweden’s state-owned power company Vattenfall, near Norfolk in the United Kingdom. When completed in 2026, it will produce about 1.3 GW of electric power, equivalent to one nuclear power plant.
LS Cable & System will supply 320 kV ultra-high voltage direct current (HVDC) submarine and underground cables for the wind farm. It will mark the company’s first supply of HVDC cables that use cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) as an insulating material.
XLPE cables are becoming the mainstream in renewable energy projects in Europe and North America due to their convenient installation and connection and easy maintenance. However, so far, only a few companies have succeeded in developing them. The latest order is expected to help LS Cable & System accelerate its penetration of the XLPE cable market. The company plans to expedite its market expansion in Europe as well as North America and Asia where demand for XLPE cables is growing rapidly.
6/2/2022 -
LS Cable & System USA, part of South Korea’s LS Cable & System, plans a $26.9 million investment to expand its plant in Tarboro, North Carolina.
The announcement said that the company’s campus in Edgecombe County will be expanded over a three-year period. The investment will increase the current manufacturing capacity and add an additional 86 employees to the current staff of 188, said Bobby Piner, the plant’s manager of manufacturing. “This expansion will allow (us) to meet the current and growing needs of our customer base while providing job growth opportunities for our team members in Tarboro.”
LS Cable & System USA designs, manufactures and distributes an array of cable products for the rapidly growing energy sector within commercial, industrial, renewable and utility markets. The Tarboro plant, which makes low- and medium- voltage cables, opened in 2012.
4/3/2022 - Earlier this year, LS Group’s cable manufacturing unit, LS Cable & System (LSCS), officially opened its new power cable plant in Indonesia, a joint venture.
A press release said that the new plant, called LSAGI, is a joint venture between LSCS and Artha Graha Network, Indonesia’s 10th-largest conglomerate. The Korean firm owns a 75% stake in the entity.
The plant, located on a 64,000-square-meter site in the Artha Industrial Complex near Jakarta, will mainly produce overhead wires for power transmission and distribution and low-voltage cables for buildings and plants.
LSCS said it aims to expand its presence in the Southeast Asian country by taking advantage of its local partnership business experience and sales networks ranging from banks to hotels. “In the cable industry, each country is strengthening policies to protect its own companies,” an LS official said. “We will pursue different strategies for different markets to better meet the local demands.”
The firm also expected a quick recovery of the pandemic-hit cable market, citing Indonesia’s planned relocation of its capital from Jakarta to a jungled area of Kalimantan on Borneo island, which involves a $32 billion mega development project. LSCS now operates a total of 12 production facilities around the world, including in the U.S., Poland, Vietnam and China.
4/1/2022 - Earlier this year, LS Group’s cable manufacturing unit, LS Cable & System (LSCS), officially opened its new power cable plant in Indonesia, a joint venture.
A press release said that the new plant, called LSAGI, is a joint venture between LSCS and Artha Graha Network, Indonesia’s 10th-largest conglomerate. The Korean firm owns a 75% stake in the entity.
The plant, located on a 64,000-square-meter site in the Artha Industrial Complex near Jakarta, will mainly produce overhead wires for power transmission and distribution and low-voltage cables for buildings and plants.
LSCS said it aims to expand its presence in the Southeast Asian country by taking advantage of its local partnership business experience and sales networks ranging from banks to hotels. “In the cable industry, each country is strengthening policies to protect its own companies,” an LS official said. “We will pursue different strategies for different markets to better meet the local demands.”
The firm also expected a quick recovery of the pandemic-hit cable market, citing Indonesia’s planned relocation of its capital from Jakarta to a jungled area of Kalimantan on Borneo island, which involves a $32 billion mega development project. LSCS now operates a total of 12 production facilities around the world, including in the U.S., Poland, Vietnam and China.
8/3/21 LS Cable & System (LSC&S) President & CEO Myung Roe-Hyun announced that the South Korean company will expand its submarine cable capacity at its campus in Donghae City, Gangwon-do.
A press release said that LSC&S will build an additional submarine cable plant in Building No. 2 of the Donghae City campus, which is in the Gangwon Province. The site now has three plants. The fourth plant will feature the tallest power cable production tower in South Korea. When completed, the vertical continuous extraction system (VCV) tower will be as tall as a 63-story apartment, the tallest structure in Donghae City. Construction will start this October and is expected to be completed by the end of April 2023. The project, which will cost more than $161 million, will increase LSC&S’s submarine cable production capacity more than 1.5 times. The 172-m-tall VCV Tower is designed to improve cable insulation quality and increase productivity.
LS Cable & System built Korea’s first submarine cable plant in Donghae City in 2008, and has invested about US$296 million to date. The existing plant, which has a total floor area of 84,000 sq m, when have an additional 31,000 sq m.
“As countries around the world are increasing investments in renewable energy to become carbon neutral, the submarine cable market is also growing,” said Myung Roe-Hyun, President & CEO of LS Cable & System. “We will contribute to the national economy by expanding domestic investments.”