Madsen Steel Wire Products has acquired a 100,000-sq-ft facility in Bronson, Michigan, that will house a powder coating line that will apply coating to a wide variety of wire products produced at Madsen Steel Wire’s headquarters in Orland, Indiana, and be able to coat any wire or sheet metal product customers need.

A press release said that the best-in-class powder coating line will enable the company to be a one-stop shop for multiple industries. The expansion was fully backed by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) and the Michigan Business Development Program (MBDP) is providing instrumental support with a performance-based grant amounting to $552,000.

“Michigan has been an outstanding partner in growing USA manufacturing by reinvesting in the local community,” said Drew Greenblatt, president and owner of Madsen Steel Wire Products and Marlin Steel Wire Products. He noted that purchases last year included two best-in-class machines: a Trumpf TruBend 3000 press brake and a Schlatter MG950 wire welder to produce wire products quicker and more efficiently while boosting product quality. “With the addition of our new powder coating line, we have further cut down the time spent in the manufacturing process. True to our promise, we continue to deliver on “highest quality, fastest delivery.”

Manner Polymers announces that it plans to invest $54 million to build a new sustainable manufacturing facility in Southern Illinois that will create more than 60 jobs.

A press release said that the new plant in Mount Vernon is being designed with a focus on automation and redundancy to provide the highest levels of product consistency coupled with low cost and unparalleled supply reliability. Production is expected to start in the summer of 2025.

The company serves a broad range of markets including automotive, appliance, construction, telecommunications, industrial, medical and agriculture. Product applications include cable and wire jacketing and insulation compounds for fiber optic cables, data transmission cables, coaxial cables, patch cords and shielded/unshielded twisted pairs.

The new facility will increase the company’s production capacity by 100 million pounds. It will be powered by a 15-acre solar field located on the site.

“Not only will we incorporate best in class manufacturing technology, but we will also produce substantially all of the electricity that we use,” said Manner Polymers CEO Raj Bhargava. “Our objective is to build the lowest cost, highest quality, most environmentally sustainable flexible PVC compounding plant in the world. This will be a transformational plant. It will have industry leading capabilities coupled with a clean energy footprint.”

In what it describes as “a historic first,” Nexans reports that it has been awarded a turnkey contract valued at €1.43 billion for the section of the EuroAsia Interconnector that connects Greece and Cyprus.

A press release said that the interconnector is a critical part of a broader project to connect the grids of Greece, Israel, and Cyprus. The 525 kV high voltage direct current (HVDC) cable, which will be the longest and deepest interconnector in the world with a bi-pole length of 2 x 900 km, will run across the Mediterranean Sea floor at depths of more than 3,000 m. The subsea HVDC mass impregnated cables will be manufactured in Nexans’ facilities in Halden (Norway) and Futtsu (Japan). Installation will be done with the Nexans Aurora and Nexans Skagerrak cable-laying vessels.

The EuroAsia Interconnector will exchange up to 1,000 MW among the three nations with the capability of increasing to 2,000 MW, the equivalent to 3 million households’ average electricity consumption, and will end the energy isolation of Cyprus by creating an energy highway between Europe and Asia, it will be the largest interconnector project in history, supplying over three million homes with electricity. Pole One is expected to be completed in 2028 and Pole Two in 2029.

“This record-breaking project demonstrates our capacity to innovate and push the limits of electrical transmission and distribution to meet an ever-growing global need,” said Nexans CEO Christopher Guérin. “This is a crucial step on the path to a carbon-free economy. Nexans’ global electrification strategy is playing a key role in the world’s journey to a net zero future and we are excited that we have been selected to bring the development of the EuroAsia Interconnector to life.”

The interconnector was designated as a Project of Common Interest (PCI) by the EU, a status designed to allow the project to benefit from accelerated planning and permitting, lower administrative costs, and public participation. To qualify as a PCI, a project must also contribute to the European Union’s energy and climate goals, so that much of the electricity being shared will be from renewable and decarbonized sources. IPTO, the Transmission System Operator of Greece, was cited as having provided essential technical and operational capacity to the project.

The Prysmian Group has been awarded a new contract by Ørsted Wind Power A/S to supply inter-array submarine cables for the Hornsea 3 offshore wind farm, located 160 km off the Yorkshire coast, U.K.

A press release said that the project—subject to a final procedural confirmation from Ørsted—calls for approximately 280 km of 66 kV inter-array cables with XLPE insulation. The order from Ørsted, a repeat customer, will cover about half of the overall wind farm’s requirements.

The Prysmian Group will be responsible for the design, manufacture, supply, termination and testing of the inter–array submarine cable system that will connect the wind turbines and the offshore converter station. All the submarine cable cores will be produced at the Group’s centers of excellence located in Montereau and Gron, France, while the armoring and assembling processes will be performed at the plant in Nordenham, Germany. The cables are due to be delivered in 2026. Once constructed, the site will be able to supply green, renewable electricity to more than three million homes.

“This award reflects Ørsted’s trust in Prysmian’s capabilities to meet the increasing need of submarine cable systems to support the energy transition to smarter and greener power grids,” said Juliano De Mello, sales team manager offshore wind, Prysmian Group. “We are very pleased and proud for having been chosen again to undertake such a challenging project supporting Ørsted to meet the U.K. Government’s ambition to deliver 50 GW of offshore wind power by 2030 as part of the British Energy Security Strategy.”

In 2018, Ørsted awarded Prysmian Group the contract for the 66 kV inter–array submarine cable system for the Hornsea 2 offshore wind farm. That project connected 110 of the 165 wind turbines and the offshore substation platform.

“After working successfully with Prysmian on the Hornsea 2 project, we are delighted to work together again on Hornsea 3,” said Luke Bridgman, senior project director for Hornsea 3. “The project represents another leap forward in terms of the size and scale of offshore wind farms, and collaborations with world-class manufacturers such as Prysmian are crucial to executing the project successfully.