5/4/2022 -

Orient Cable has been awarded the Hollandse Kust West Beta export cable contract by TenneT, in consortium with Boskalis.

A press release said that the contract calls for the supply and installation of two 65-km-long export cables that will connect the planned Hollandse Kust West Beta 700 MW offshore wind farm to TenneT’s onshore grid in the Netherlands. The company will also supply a nine-km 66kV interconnector cable between the Hollandse Kust West Alpha and Hollandse Kust West Beta offshore substations.

Orient Cable is working with partner Boskalis, which will install the high-voltage cable system. The two 220kV AC cable circuits will come ashore near the existing onshore high-voltage substation at Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. The value of this contract was described as “sizable.”

Orient Cable will design, engineer, manufacture, test and transport the 220 kV XLPE-insulated export cables and associated accessories termination works. The subsea cables will be manufactured at Orient Cable’s plant in Ningbo, China, which it notes is the world’s largest cable manufacturing facility for the high and extra-high voltage subsea cables.

The Hollandse Kust West Beta offshore windfarm is expected to enter service in 2025. The project is a part of the Dutch national roadmap to achieve a 49% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030.With this project and through its client TenneT, Orient Cable is supporting the decarbonizing by making renewable energy available in the Netherlands.

5/4/2022 -

NKT has finalized the repair of the 285 kV HVDC power cable system Kontiskan 2 that connects the power grids of Sweden and Denmark.

A press release said that NKT was awarded the repair contract after the Kontiskan 2 interconnector—operated by Svenska Kraftnät and Energinet—suffered a fault due to external impact at the end of January 2022. Roughly eight weeks after the fault occurred, the 285 kV mass impregnated (MI) HVDC power cable system was back in full operation. The actual repair operation took only 12 days. 

NKT performed the initial fault finding from shore identifying that the damage was located offshore. The damaged cable section was located 33 km from the converter station in Billdal, Sweden, after further pinpointing with a third-party vessel. NKT completed the repair operation within only 12 days after the mobilization of a third-party repair vessel. Following the operation, NKT buried the power cable at safe water depth to mitigate the risk of external impact.

 The Kontiskan 2 was energized shortly after the repair bringing the power cable connection back in full operation. The interconnector was installed in 1988 as an addition to the Kontiskan 1 from 1969 to support the exchange of energy between the Nordic countries by connecting the national power grids in Denmark and Sweden.

“Once again, we demonstrated that we are among the fastest companies in the market when it comes to offshore repairs,” the release said.

5/4/2022 -

Wind, a Dutch subsea cable specialist, has signed a long-term cooperation agreement with Waterson Terminals to establish a new cable storage yard in Rhode Island.

A press release said that the cable storage yard, to be located at ProvPort in Providence, is expected to be fully operational by the beginning of the third quarter of this year. It added that there was also the possibility of expanding capacity into other facilities of Waterson Terminals as the business grows and more space is required. The Providence yard will provide all cable and accessories storage and handling, while the project management will be carried out from Wind’s headquarters in Alkmaar in the Netherlands.

“Waterson Terminal Services is thrilled to partner with Wind as we work to provide a high level of port logistics and stevedoring service to the US offshore wind supply chain,” said Waterson Terminal Services general manager Chris Waterson.

Wind’s clients include Prysmian, which chose it for the transport, handling and temporary storage of a ±150 km array cable for the Hollandse Kust Zuid Offshore Wind Farm.

5/4/2022 -

U.K. metals tycoon Sanjeev Gupta has secured $125 million in new financing for Liberty Steel, a manufacturer of steel wire rod in the U.S.

In an article in The Wall Street Journal, Liberty Steel USA reported that it has been given funding from Eclipse Business Capital, a U.S. lender. It replaces an existing loan with Wells Fargo. The deal provides financial relief to a part of Gupta’s global empire amid a wider restructuring following the collapse of specialty lender Greensill Capital. Terms of the loan were not released, but the article described Eclipse as a Chicago-based lender to midsize companies.

Gupta owns Liberty Steel USA through his GFG Alliance group of companies, which have more than 200 manufacturing assets in 12 countries. In the U.S., Liberty Steel manufactures wire rod and has operations in states including Illinois and South Carolina. Those include the Georgetown mill that Liberty purchased in a shuttered state from ArcelorMittal in December 2017, and reopened seven months later.

The prospects of GFG’s steel operations have been at risk for months following the unraveling last year of specialty finance firm Greensill Capital. Greensill and GFG were closely intertwined, with Greensill supplying the Gupta family’s steel, aluminum and energy businesses with their main source of funding.