Westlake Corporation announced that it will shut several of its North American plants that make key PVC and related feedstocks due to business conditions.

A press release said that the company will close its suspension PVC plant in Aberdeen, Mississippi, which has 1 billion lb/year of PVC capacity; its vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) plant in Lake Charles, Louisiana, with 910 million lb/year of VCM capacity; one diaphragm chloralkali unit at the Lake Charles site with 825 million lb/year of chlorine and 910 million lb/year of caustic soda capacity; and its 570 million lb/year styrene plant at Lake Charles. Westlake said it will continue supplying customers with PVC, VCM and chloralkali products from its seven other North American chlorovinyl facilities.

In the same release, Westlake stated that “persistent, challenging market conditions in the global chlorovinyls and styrene markets require us to take decisive action to improve our overall cost position and asset efficiency,” adding that the rationalization will better align production with “current and anticipated demand” while still reliably serving customers. The company said that after the shutdowns it will retain 5.52 billion lb/year of PVC capacity globally, including 4.9 billion lb/year in North America, as well as 7.63 billion lb/year of VCM and 6.68 billion lb/year of chlorine capacity.

An article in PlasticsToday noted that Westlake is targeting older, higher cost assets facing expensive logistics and weaker export margins. An analysis by ICIS and other industry outlets linked the timing to a period of overcapacity and softer downstream demand, particularly in construction driven PVC applications, even as producers anticipate a potential recovery in PVC demand around 2026.

Westlake is not the only U.S. supplier to adjust capacity. An ICIS report said that Olin Corporation plans to shut about 450,000 ECU of asbestos diaphragm chloralkali capacity at Freeport, Texas, after already closing an older diaphragm unit at McIntosh, Alabama, while converting its Plaquemine, Louisiana, chloralkali facilities to non-asbestos technology. Argus and other sources have pointed out that major PVC producers Formosa and Shintech recently brought significant new PVC capacity online in the U.S., contributing to the current oversupplied environment.

Gold Cup Electric Apparatus Co., Ltd., a Chinese manufacturer of magnetic conductors, reports that it has committed approximately $100 million to build its first European production plant in Planá u Mariánských Lázní, Czechia.

Per a press release from CzechInvest, a subsidiary—Gold Cup Electric Electromagnet Wires Co., Ltd. (Gold Cup Wire)—will locate the new plant on the site of a former chocolate packaging factory. It will be designed to annually produce up to 20,000 tons of magnetic conductors for use in transformers, electric motors and equipment for renewable energy and electric vehicles.

The manufacturing process will be highly automated, with minimal requirements for manual labor. Some 70 jobs will be created in the first phase, with this figure expected to rise to as many as 200 by 2028.

Per CzechInvest/company statements, the Czech facility will manufacture magnetic conductors and electromagnetic wire (flat and round), not finished power or data cables. That output will be marketed to other firms that then incorporate into complete cables, transformers and electric machines. The initiative represents “the first time such advanced magnetic-wire production has moved from Asia to the continent.” said Gold Cup Wire CEO Fred Feng. He described it as a milestone for Czechia and Europe.

 “In recent years, foreign companies have shown interest in moving production closer to their markets, creating opportunities for Central and Eastern Europe to attract high-tech investment (such as this),” said Gabriela Bauerová of CzechInvest.

Sumitomo Electric announced that it will supply and install 140 km of 525 kV High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) cable for the Sea Link project in the U.K.

A press release said that the contract from National Grid Electricity Transmission PLC (NGET) is for the “Sea Link” between Kent and Suffolk in the U.K. The 2 GW link will connect new converter stations in each county via a subsea route through the Thames Estuary and southern North Sea to increase the capability of the network to carry low-carbon and renewable power.

The submarine cable will be manufactured in Sumitomo Electric’s factory at Port of Nigg in Scotland, with construction set to begin in 2027. Sea Link is one of NGET’s infrastructure projects under “The Great Grid Upgrade,” which aims to substantially increase electricity transmission capacity in the U.K. and deliver cleaner energy to homes and businesses.

The Port of Nigg facility was built to actively contribute to the U.K.’s critical electricity transmission infrastructure construction for the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan and the Net Zero 2050 initiatives. The factory, once fully operational, will create more than 200 direct jobs as well as numerous jobs in associated and supporting future supply chains, including additional personnel directly related to the execution and installation of projects such as Sea Link.

It will work alongside project partners Siemens Energy and marine contractor Van Oord.

China’s Jiangsu Hengtong Wire & Cable Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Hengtong Group, reports that it was ranked first and successfully won the largest share in China Mobile’s centralized procurement project for LV flexible power cables for telecommunications use.

A press release said that the project involves a total of 50,250,400 meters/50,250 km of LV flexible power cables, of which Hengtong Cable secured 27.78%. Other awards were not announced. The contract will support China Mobile’s large scale telecom power build out, highlighting LV flexible power cables.

The press release does not specify which regions of China this procurement will serve, when deliveries begin or the contract duration. China Mobile provides communications and information services in all 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and directly administered municipalities of mainland China as well as Hong Kong, and holds about 61% of China’s wireless market with a mobile subscriber base exceeding 1 billion users as of 2024.