Prysmian is launching a new investment of around €120m in its factory in Pikkala, Finland.
The cash – in addition to the €100m already provided in 2022 – is aimed at further increasing the production capacity for the 525kV HVDC submarine cable systems, supporting the growing need to develop and upgrade power transmission grids for the energy transition.
The global power transmission cable market is expected to grow to €15bn by 2030 from around €8bn reported in 2022.
“The investment is part of the around €500m capex per year that the Group is implementing to support the energy transition, electrification and digitalisation processes, which require the upgrade of power grids and telecom networks,” said chief operating officer at Prysmian Group Massimo Battaini.
“It is worth also to highlight that this massive investment plan is made possible thanks to the group financial solidity and its proven cash generation capability,” Battaini added.
The new Vertical Continuous Vulcanization (VCV) lines will more than double the Pikkala plant’s existing production capacity of 525kV extruded submarine cables and 400kV AC cables by 2026.
EVP of the project’s business unit Hakan Ozmen said: “Our global strategy is to rely on three state-of-the-art power transmission cable hubs: one in Northern Europe, thanks to the increasing investments in the Pikkala plant in Finland, another one in the Mediterranean area, where we are investing around €100m in the existing plant in Arco Felice, Italy, and the third one is the completely new submarine cable plant in the US, Massachusetts, serving the very high potential North American market.
“This will allow us to support our customers’ needs, while also continuing to pursue our own climate change commitments.”