South Korea’s LS Cable & System announced that an investment of approximately 1 trillion won (about $721.34 million) will be made for its subsidiary—LS Greenlink USA—to build the largest U.S. submarine cable factory.
Per an article in BusinessKorea, the factory will be built on a 396,700-sq-m site along the Elizabeth River in Chesapeake, Virginia. It will have a total floor area of 70,000 sq. m. Construction is set to begin in 2025 and is expected to be completed by 2027. The facility will also feature a 200-m-tall power cable production tower, which it noted would be the tallest of its kind in the world. It will have more than 300 employees.
LS Cable & System will receive about $48 million (some 66.5 billion won) in subsidies and tax benefits from the state government. Including $99 million (some 137.2 billion won) from the Department of Energy (DOE) under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the company has secured a total of $147 million (about 202.7 billion won) in support. “This marks the largest support package for any global cable company operating in the U.S.”
The story cited other company activity, including construction of large cable installation vessels by LS Marine Solutions and the expansion of LS Eco Energy’s submarine projects in Europe. In related news, LS Cable & System also recently announced it is building a new manufacturing plant in Queretaro, Mexico, that will produce large capacity busway systems for both the U.S. and international markets. It will be located on a large site in an industrial complex. Construction is expected to be completed in the first half of 2025.