Prysmian opens first Extra High Voltage power cable plant in North
America
Prysmian has just completed a new Extra High Voltage power cable plant in
Abbeville (South Carolina). The facility, in which
€32 million has been invested, is the
first one of its kind to produce Extra High Voltage power cables in North America,
which until now has had to import this technology. The plant consists of a Vertical Continuous
Vulcanization (VCV) process housed in a 373 foot tower.
It will give Prysmian an important competitive advantage in the North American high voltage
cables and systems market.
Significant investments are expected in this sector, also as a result of the U.S.
Government’s stimulus programme involving modernization and development of power transmission
networks partly to be able to exploit renewable energy sources.
The new plant joins the existing Medium and Low Voltage power cable manufacturing facilities
in Abbeville and further reinforces the product range available to Prysmian’s customers which
include North America’s major utility companies. In 2008
North America represented 11.8% of the Group’s total sales, with over 800 people
employed in four production facilities: two in the U.S. (Abbeville and Lexington, S.C.) and two in
Canada (St. Jean, Québec, and Prescott, Ontario).
In North America Prysmian is currently involved in
strategic projects, such as the Trans Bay Cable (high-voltage submarine power link
that will allow the city of San Francisco to access more environmentally friendly energy).
Moreover, in 2007 the Group completed the Neptune project, a submarine transmission cable that
delivers energy to New York City from New Jersey.
The investment in the U.S. represents a further step forward in Prysmians’ investment plans
in the high-tech, high added-value sector of high voltage submarine and underground cables. In the
last few years Prysmian made significant investments to increase its production capacity in
markets with the greatest growth potential. These include China, where the
construction of 24,000 km of new power transmission lines has been announced, and Europe, where
strong impetus is coming both from the need to develop network interconnectors, and from the
development of renewable energy from wind farms that require connecting to the traditional
transmission networks.
Apart from the new Abbeville plant, Prysmian has 14 other
facilities for High Voltage cables and systems, which are located in France,
Finland, Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Spain, Turkey, UK, Indonesia, Malaysia and China.
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