Nexans has secured a major contract from Interconnect Malta (ICM) to deliver the second Malta-Sicily interconnector, a high-voltage alternating current (HVAC) subsea link designed to reinforce Malta’s electricity system.

A press release said that the subsea cable, to be made at the company’s U.S. plant in Charleston, South Carolina, will run between Maghtab, Malta, and Ragusa, Sicily. The length was not cited, but a report at independent.com said it would be about 99 km long and the project is valued at approximately €300 million. The cable will be installed in parallel with the existing interconnector that Nexans supplied in 2015.

“Delivering this second interconnector strengthens the energy link between Malta and Sicily, ensuring long-term stability for the country’s electricity supply,” said Nexans’ EVP Power Transmission Business Group, Pascal Radue. “Building on our longstanding partnership with Interconnect Malta, this project also plays a key role in supporting the country’s transition toward a climate-neutral economy and enabling further investment in renewable energy.”

In other news, Nexans reported that the company is expanding its low-carbon product range this year. The low-voltage cables from its plant in Jeumont (northern France) will have 10% recycled aluminum content and contribute to reducing Nexans’ and its customers’ carbon footprints. They will be made exclusively with low-carbon aluminum produced using a decarbonized energy mix, and 10% of the aluminum in them will be recycled. All the cables from Jeumont for low-voltage markets will include this new feature.

“The goal for Nexans today is to source enough recycled aluminum to meet the market’s needs,” said Nexans Sustainable Offer Marketing Director Laure Desseigne. “That’s why we are asking our customers to route their cables towards streams that effectively ensure circularity, i.e. turn used cables into new, recycled cables.” In 2024, the Nexans Group announced a new €15 million investment plan to modernize its plant in Bourgen-Bresse, France, to produce eco-friendlier medium-voltage cables.

Nexans, a global leader in the design and manufacturing of cable systems and services, has secured a major framework agreement with RTE (Réseau de Transport d’Electricité), France’s Transmission System Operator, that calls for the supply, installation, and commissioning of some 730 km of HVDC cable.

A press release said that the project will require 450 km of subsea cables and 280 km of onshore cables to support the connection of three offshore wind farms: the Center Manche 1 & 2 and Oléron, to the French transmission network. The value of the agreement was said to top

€1 billion, depending on the final quantities to be agreed upon and the subcontractors to be appointed during the next phase leading to the signature of each EPCI contract.

This landmark agreement with RTE reinforces Nexans’ role in the energy transition in Europe, said Nexans CEO Christopher Guérin. “By delivering state-of-the-art transmission solutions, we are not only supporting France’s ambitious offshore wind targets but also strengthening the resilience and sustainability of the power grid.”

In other news, Nexans reported that the company will participate as a partner in the Shift2DC project, a winner of the Horizon Europe program for research and innovation.

The Shift2Dc project aims to accelerate the adoption of Direct Current (DC) technology in both medium- and low-voltage electrical systems. By enhancing efficiency and sustainability, the initiative seeks to modernize energy distribution while ensuring the reliability of key components, such as cables, converters, micro-converters, measurement devices, and switching equipment.

Nexans’ participation in the Shift2DC project represents a major opportunity to develop cables suited for DC installations, particularly for future buildings. These solutions will incorporate advanced functionalities to ensure safety and optimal interaction with the grid.

Through R&D and pilot project experiments, Nexans is committed to designing high-performance, sustainable DC cables. This development relies on a strategic selection of polymers and formulations, optimized transit capacity management, and an eco-design approach considering conductor selection, product size, and recyclability. The objective is to optimize cable lifecycle while integrating innovations that facilitate installation and rapid on-site connections.

The first prototypes, intended for qualification phases, will be produced at the Grimsås pilot plant in Sweden. Nexans will assess the performance of the new DC cables, followed by real-world testing in pilot projects.

Nexans reported two separate contracts, one from TenneT worth up to as much as €1 billion, and a second from Sweden to connect an island to the mainland.

A press release said that one contract is for a new project from Germany’s TenneT, a Dutch-German transmission system operator, that was secured under a 2023 framework agreement. The contract calls for Nexans to handle the engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) of 250 km of HVDC XLPE cables for the LanWin 2 offshore grid connection system.

The system is being designed to transmit 2 GW of offshore wind energy from the German North Sea to the mainland. Commissioning of the project is expected in 2030. This project highlights Nexans’s ongoing partnership with TenneT, following the BalWin3 and LanWin4 projects in March 2024, to develop the infrastructure essential to support Germany and Europe’s renewable energy future.

Nexans also announced that it has secured a big order from Swedish transmission system operator Svenska kraftnät to deliver 320 km of high-voltage subsea and onshore cables for the Gotland Connection project in Sweden. The project calls for the 220 kV HVAC subsea and onshore cables to strengthen the electricity supply between Gotland—the largest island of Sweden— and mainland Sweden.

The transition to a carbon-neutral industry on Gotland is expected to drive a sharp increase in electricity demand by the early 2030s.Under this contract, Nexans will supply and install the cable systems, which will be manufactured at several of the company’s plants. The project is scheduled for completion by mid-2030 and reinforces Nexans’ position as a trusted leader in energy infrastructure solutions.

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.”