LS C&S has won a turnkey contract valued at approximately $85 million for a submarine cable project to connect Bahrain’s tourist islands. 

A press release said that Bahrain EWA (Electricity & Water Authority) plans to run 25 km of power cable between the main islands of Bahrain southeast to the Hawar Islands, which are known as a “go to” destination for divers. The Bahrain government wants to develop the area as a tourist complex, so it plans to access electricity from the main island rather than build a power plant on one of the smaller islands.

Saudi-based ALGIHAZ Contracting Co. is the primary project contractor. LS C&S will take charge of the submarine cable portion, with the project scheduled to be completed in September 2021. The project was supported by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and there was fierce competition for the contract by major cable makers in Europe and Japan. LS C&S said in the release that its experience of global long-distance projects, such as Jeju-Jindo Island power grid (113 km), Qatar (100 km), Canada (35 km) and the U.S. (30 km), “greatly helped the company win the contract.”

“As the power grid is also closely related to national security and social unrest due to blackout, economic thinking alone will not determine suppliers,” LS C&S President and CEO Roe-hyun Myung said. “LS C&S is capitalizing on its products and construction competency to expand its advance into overseas and increasing domestic investments as well.”

The release also said that LS C&S dominated the Taiwanese submarine cable market, worth $420 million in 2019, and that the business has already begun to grow in earnest. “So, the company invested about $42 million in Donghae, Gangwon-do, and plans to complete a second plant this coming March.”