Ian Rand has joined Southwire as Vice President and President of Canada Business. He will provide oversight and guidance to the organization based at Southwire Canada’s new corporate headquarters in Mississauga, Ontario. He served as Senior Vice President Canada for Prysmian and General Cable from 2010-2019, before taking his most recent position as general manager for Omnicable Canada. Based in Carrollton, Georgia, USA, Southwire is the largest manufacturer of copper and aluminum rod, wire and cable in the United States.

 Teknor Apex has named Patricia Mishic O’Brien as chief sustainability officer. She has extensive experience driving transformational, sustainable growth across diverse industries. She most recently was chief commercial officer at UBQ Materials, where she was responsible for sales, marketing, sales operations and technical service and development. Prior to that she held senior leadership roles at various companies in the materials science industry. She holds a B.S. degree in business administration from Youngstown State University and an MBA from the University of Akron. Based in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, Teknor Apex is a global leader in custom polymer compounding.

 Todd Hesser has joined the high-temperature sales team at Radix. He has more than 25 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. In his new role, he will focus on supporting regional Energy OEM and MRO customer accounts. Based in Glenwillow, Ohio, Radix Wire specializes in high-performance, extreme-temperature wire and cable.

Fred Carr was named a plant director for Prysmian. He has more than 20 years of plant management experience, most recently serving as the director of operations at Atkore. He previously held similar management roles at Alkegen, Parker Hannifin, and Federal Mogul. He holds multiple degrees from the University of Illinois in mechanical engineering as well as a PhD from the University of Notre Dame. He is in charge of Prysmian’s plant in Marshall, Texas, which manufactures a range of power cables.

LS Eco Energy is relocating its headquarters from Seoul to Donghae City, Gangwon State, to further its foothold in the global renewable energy market, and that focus could also lead the business—part of LS Cable & System—to establishing a manufacturing presence in Vietnam.

Per a report in BusinessKorea, the decision was approved at an April 3 board meeting to accelerate the company’s expansion into the submarine cable business, a critical component of offshore wind power infrastructure. The new headquarters will be situated at the Donghae facility of LS Cable & System, which specializes in producing submarine and industrial cables.

The relocation to the base for LS Cable & System will make it easier for the two companies to collaborate in cable design, joint project bidding and related production activities. High-voltage direct current (HVDC) cables are particularly crucial for long-distance transmission due to their efficiency. The global submarine cable market is poised for substantial growth, projected to increase from $4.9 billion in 2022 to $21.7 billion by 2029, according to market research firm CRU.

In February, LS Eco Energy officials engaged in discussions with Nguyen Hong Dien, Vietnam’s minister of industry and trade, and state-owned enterprises like PetroVietnam during their visit to Korea. These talks focused on potential cooperation in transmitting power from Vietnam’s offshore wind farms to Singapore. The company is considering joint participation with LS Marine Solutions in this ambitious project. LS Cable & System is also discussing possible options with PTS—a subsidiary of the PetroVietnam Group—for establishing submarine cable production facilities in Vietnam.

On March 26, LS Eco Energy amended its articles of association during a shareholders’ meeting to include offshore wind and energy-related businesses. This could help the company expand its portfolio in response to policy trends such as the Special Act on Offshore Wind Power and initiatives like the West Coast Energy Highway.

CEO Lee Sang-ho described Southeast Asia as a strategically important renewable energy hub. “As Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, emerges as a renewable energy hub, submarine cables are gaining attention as key infrastructure. We will accelerate our entry into the global market with the relocation of our headquarters.”

China’s Orient Cable (NBO) has reported two offshore power cable contracts, including one that it says sets an industry record for an extra-high-voltage offshore route.

NBO, which was part of a consortium with partner China Southern Power Grid, said that the project developed by Energy China calls for a 500 kV 2500 mm subsea cable system that can provide 2 GW transmission capacity. The route length is approximately 118 km, which the company notes sets a record for longest offshore distance.

“This achievement further builds on our legacy and long-lasted R&D investment ... (and can) be considered as another base to standardize 500 kV HVDC OWF technology,” the release said. The project marks “a critical step in China’s renewable energy revolution and highlights the NBO’s unmatched engineering expertise in extra high-voltage, long-length and high-performance cable systems.”

The contract follows a prior related order for a 500 kV extra high-voltage AC (EHVAC) offshore wind subsea cable for a 92-km-long cable route. The project will have a transmission capacity of 1 GW for a project in Guangdong Province, China, developed by Energy China. That project was valued at over €240M, including the two circuits 60 km 500 kV three-core export cables.

“This innovative 500 kV subsea cable is the first (such)commercial application for the offshore wind farm in the world,” the release said. This is another key milestone for Orient Cable in the high-end EHVAC power transmission technology following the successful delivery of 500 kV 1 x 1800 mm subsea cable project 500 kV HVAC interconnection project for China state grid in 2019.

In January, Orient Cable (NBO) was named as one of the suppliers to Ørsted and PGE’s 1.5 GW Baltica 2 offshore wind farm in Poland. Orient Cable will deliver 170 km of 66 kV inter-array cables for the Polish offshore wind project.