Italian cable firm Prysmian invests €32m in US vulcanising plant

ERJ staff report (EPN)

Prysmian, an Italy-based supplier of cables to the energy and telecoms markets, claims its new €32m US plant will be the first to produce Extra High Voltage power cables in North America.

The new plant, located in Abbeville, South Carolina, consists of a Vertical Continuous Vulcanization (VCV) process housed in a 373 foot tower.

Prysmian hopes to gain a competitive advantage in the North American high voltage cables market, boosted in part by the US government's emphasis on modernising power transmission networks.

The new Abbeville plant is Prysmian's fourth in North America, as it also has medium and low voltage cable production facilities in Lexington, South Carolina, and in Quebec and Ontario in Canada. In 2008, North America represented 11.8% of group sales.

Prysmian has also invested in the high-tech cable sector in Asia and Europe.

“These include China, where the construction of 24,000km 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,” says the company.

Prysmian formed in 2005 when the Pirelli group sold its cables and telecommunications businesses to Goldmann Sachs. It became a listed company in 2007 and now has 14 manufacturing facilities. Outside the US, these are located in France, Finland, Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Spain, Turkey, the UK, Indonesia, Malaysia and China.

From European Plastics News (A Crain publication)

Press release from Prysmian