Nexans has won a contract from ScottishPower Renewables, part of the Iberdrola Group, to supply the export cable for East Anglia Two (EA2), a 960 MW offshore wind farm in the U.K.

A press release said that Nexans will supply and install approximately 100 km of 275 kV high-voltage subsea export cables and 55 kms of onshore cables. Production of the cable will be done at Nexan plants in Alden, Norway, and Charleroi, Belgium.

Installation work is scheduled to take place in 2027 and 2028, with the project set for completion by the end of 2028. The windfarm is located in the southern North Sea, some 33 km from the Suffolk coast, at its nearest point off Southwold. There are multiple projects involved, including one Nexans also provided the cable for. East Anglia Two, part of the East Anglia Hub, was approved in March 2022 jointly with East Anglia One North. It will host as many as 75 wind turbines. There is also an East Anglia Three. Nexans provided cable for a prior project.

Nexans announced that the company has separated the business of its specialty industrial cable operations, formerly known as Nexans Industry Solutions & Projects, and renamed it Lynxeo.

A press release said that the separation will provide increased clarity in the market, strengthening Lynxeo’s role as a fully integrated player, serving a diversified range of critical infrastructure industries including railways, rolling stock, automation, shipbuilding, wind, aerospace and healthcare. “Today’s announcement is yet another step in the continued successful execution by Nexans of its ‘Electrify the Future’ strategy,” it said.

With 2,000 employees in nine countries and annual standard sales of more than €700 million euros, Lynxeo is “a powerhouse in specialty industrial cables.” The move will allow Lynxeo to further enhance its role in critical industrial segments. It has a heritage of more than 100 years serving industrial champions, and boasts a global manufacturing presence in Europe Asia, and the USA.

Nexans announced that it has entered into an industrial partnership agreement with Italy’s Continuus-Properzi, a specialist in continuous casting technologies, that will build an innovative copper production and recycling plant at the Nexans site in Lens, France, for 2026.

A press release said that global demand for copper is continuing to increase, as is recycling, which led to the strategic decision. “Based on the operational expertise of the Nexans site, founded in 1971 in the industrial center of Lens, and the technological expertise of Continuus- Properzi, the objective is to continuously produce wire rod from recycled copper, through a state-of-the-art refining method using up to 100% of recycled metal, while optimizing water and energy consumption.”

Continuus-Properzi is a supplier of complete installations for the production of ETP (Electrolytic Tough Pitch) and FRHC (Fire Refined High Conductivity) wire rod. The Lens plant is the only copper rod foundry in France, and the investment of more than €90 million will increase its wire rod production capacity by over 50%, and boost its copper scrap recycling capacity to manage up to 80,000 metric tons per year.

“I feel extremely proud to have signed this strategic agreement with Nexans, a highly prestigious name in cable manufacturing,” said Continuus-Properzi President Giulio Properzi. “In compliance with the exacting requirements of Nexans engineering and the Lens site in particular, we have configured an installation that will meet the highest standards in years to come in terms of industrial performance, energy savings and environmental footprint.”

“By choosing to increase its recycling capacity, Nexans is proving that it is possible to reconcile industrial performance with the preservation of biodiversity,” said Nexans CEO Christopher Guérin. “Through this investment in (our) historic Lens plant, Nexans is ensuring its strategic independence and staying ahead of the raw materials crisis, serving its customers and partners.”

Nexans is already actively involved in cable recycling through Recycâbles, a joint venture set up with Suez in 2008. With this new initiative, the Group has become a key player in the circular economy of the European copper industry. Implemented for the first time in France, this process will help to create a circular model by collecting waste from different sectors of industry across France and reusing it virtuously for new finished products.

Nexans is vertically integrated, and the Group is entirely self-sufficient in terms of the copper supplies required for its entire cable production value chain. This key strategic advantage will be consolidated by the new plant, which will allow the Group to recycle more cables from construction sites or “urban mines.”

Nexans’ ambition is to adapt the life cycle of its products, reducing their carbon content, while also decreasing the carbon footprint of the cable industry as a whole. This investment is also part of the Group’s efforts to raise the proportion of recycled copper in its cables to 30% by 2030.

Nexans announced that it has signed a contract for the Orkney Transmission Link, for which it last year reserved capacity, and that it plans to expand a plant in France.

A press release said that Nexans finalized the contract for the Orkney Transmission Link that will exchange up to 220 MW of energy between the Orkney Islands and the UK mainland. It will have one high-voltage alternating current (HVAC) that requires about 53 km of subsea cable and 15 km of land cable for the route from Finstown in Orkney to Dounreay in Caithness.

The contract includes both the production and the installation of the cable. The 220 kV high voltage alternating current (HVAC) cable will be the largest capacity cable connecting the Orkney Islands to mainland Scotland and will span 53 km offshore and 16 km onshore routes in total in Finstown, Orkney and Dounreay in Caithness, U.K.

The interconnector will be manufactured at Nexans’ plants in Halden, Norway, for the offshore sections, and Charleroi, Belgium, for the onshore cable sections. Nexans will also install the cable. The project will be delivered in 2027.

The company also reported that it plans to spend €15 million to expand the medium-voltage cable production capacity of an existing plant in east-central France with two new production lines and an overall upgrade of the entire manufacturing flow.

A press release said that the expansion will take place at the facility in Bourg-en-Bresse in the region of Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes, over a period through 2026. It is needed to meet the growing demand in the energy sector.

Plans call for the installation of a new stranding machine that can produce new, larger aluminum cable sections, including sizes up to 400 sq mm. The plant will also get a new cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) triple extruder. The new equipment is expected be up and running in the first half of 2026. Other upgrades will be made to the sheathing and assembly lines to strengthen production of the company’s EDRMAX reinforced direct-buried cables.

Nexans announced that it has signed two memorandums of understanding with the Moroccan government for a new cable plant in Morocco that would open in 2026.

A press release said that Nexans signed the agreements with the Moroccan Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development, Ministry of Investment, Convergence and Evaluation of Public Policies, the National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water (ONEE) and the Moroccan Investment and Export Development Agency (AMDIE).

The project, which calls for a €100 million total investment plan, would be the company’s third plant for medium-voltage cable in Morocco, the others being in Casablanca and Mohammedia. The project is expected to create more than 200 direct jobs and will benefit from the backing of the Moroccan Ministries, the ONEE and the AMDIE. The project will meet the Group’s standards of excellence, in line with its Industry 4.0 digitalization and sustainability goals and will deliver cables to Africa.

“Once again, I commend Morocco’s outstanding leadership in bringing the benefits of sustainable electrification to all,” said Nexans CEO Christopher Guérin. The project is aligned with the desire of King Mohammed VI, the current leader in the region and across Africa, for deployment of renewable energy infrastructure.

The release said that Morocco aims to consolidate the entire industrial ecosystem in the years to come. The described transformative project will strengthen the development of the renewable energy industry value chain in the Kingdom and to promote technical advancement in the local industrial fabric.

Guérin said that he was pleased to see this latest step in the country, where Nexans has been operating for more than 75 years. “This project, bringing together public and private players, sets out to achieve, from the very start, ecological and human commitments, thereby unlocking significant economic potential for all of Africa.”

Nexans reports that it has agreed to reserve capacity so it can supply and install high-voltage cables to SSEN Transmission to provide a transmission link from Orkney to Dounreay in the Scottish Highlands.

A press release said that capacity reservation agreement was signed by both parties for the project. The official contract, expected to be signed in the second quarter of 2024, will require approximately 100 km of 220kV AC subsea and land cables. The Orkney Islands is investing in further renewable energy projects and needs more transmission capacity so it can export energy to the Scottish transmission network.

“This agreement marks a significant milestone for Nexans and we look forward to collaborating closely with SSEN Transmission,” said Nexans Executive Vice President Pascal Radue. “The Orkney transmission link is critical for the development of renewable energy in the UK, and underscores our commitment to advancing electrification and renewable energy in the region.”

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.

Nexans announced an expansion of its presence in the offshore wind and interconnection market by adding a third cable laying vessel to its fleet in 2026.

A press release said the new ship will build on the cutting-edge technology of Nexans’ flagship vessel, the Nexans Aurora. The new ship will have an improved design, comfort and capabilities. Equipped with three turntables, it will have 13,500-metric ton loading capacity, and host subsea tooling such as jetting and ploughing tools.

The vessel will be capable of laying up to four cables simultaneously to meet specific customer requirements, especially on large-scale projects. It will have an advanced hybrid power system and be capable of running on a biodiesel mix.

“This new vessel will be the most technologically advanced cable layer ever deployed” said Nexans COO and Senior Vice President Vincent Dessale. “Fitted with a range of high-tech cable installation and burial equipment, it will enhance the capabilities of our subsea cable operations to tackle projects on an unprecedented scale. This new strategic asset will support the Group’s long-term growth, consolidating its leadership in the interconnection and offshore markets. It perfectly embodies Nexans’ strategy to electrify the future, and its innovative features illustrate our ever-increasing commitment to meeting our partners’ needs.”