International Wire Group Holdings, Inc. (IWG)—which per its website is the largest bare copper wire and copper wire products manufacturer in the U.S., with operations in Europe—announced that it has agreed to be acquired by affiliates of Atlas Holdings LLC (Atlas) for $10.70 a share.

A press release said that IWG’s board of directors unanimously approved the transaction, and recommended that stock holders approve the deal. Atlas owns and operates 18 manufacturing and distribution businesses, with more than 17,000 employees and 150 facilities worldwide. Those sectors include automotive products and services, building materials, capital equipment, chemicals, construction, energy, equipment fabrication, industrial distribution, metals and metal fabrication, packaging and paper products.

The transaction, the release said, is also subject to approvals. If the deal goes forward, it would be expected to close early in the second quarter of 2019..

IWG, based in Camden, New York, with its subsidiaries, manufacture and market wire products that include bare and tin-plated copper wire, engineered wire products and high performance conductors for other insulated wire manufacturers and OEMs. It also has facilities in France, Italy and Poland.

Per its webpage, IWG—formed in 1995 through the combination of Wirekraft Industries and Omega Wire, joined that year by Ristance Corporation and Electro Components De Mexico—saw considerable growth in the following years. It expanded in 1996 with the addition of Dekko Wire Technologies amd Camden Wire in 1997, Spargo Wire and Italtrecce in 1998, Forissier in 1999, PD High Performance Conductors in 2006, Hamilton Products in 2008, Global Wire (Wyre Wynd, Negev, Montgomery Wire) in 2008 and Ffhoenix Cuivre in 2011.

NEC has won a contract from Okinawa Cellular Telephone Company to supply an optical submarine cable system connecting Okinawa Prefecture and Kagoshima Prefecture in Japan to be in operation in April 2020. 

A press release said that NEC will provide the optical submarine cable system as a turnkey solution. The cable will be manufactured by NEC’s subsidiary OCC Corporation, which it noted is the only company in Japan that can make optical submarine cables capable of withstanding the water pressure from 8,000 m deep seas.

The cable system will be connected to Nago City, Okinawa Prefecture, and Hioki City, Kagoshima Prefecture, with a total length of approximately 760 km and at a maximum depth of approximately 1,200 m. The system will employ the latest optical wavelength multiplex transmission method, with maximum design transmission capacity of 80 Tbps.

NEC, as a system integrator, will provides all aspects of submarine cable operations, including the optical transmission terminal stations, optical submarine repeaters, optical submarine cables, ocean surveys and route designs, installation of equipment and cable, and training and delivery testing.

Furukawa Electric LatAm has been chosen to be a supplier for a significant project with izzi telecom, a telecommunications company of the Mexican Grupo Televisa, that will require the delivery of approximately 8,000 km of optical cable.

A press release said that the project is needed because of the migration from cable TV HFC (Hybrid Fiber Coax) network to FTTH (Fiber to the Home) in its Monterrey plant. The project is expected to last two years and will include optical cables and connectivity accessories, as well as training, design and installation.

“Furukawa was chosen for its cascade, pre-terminated, fusion-free solution,” said Foad Shaikhzadeh, president of Furukawa Electric LatAm and corporate senior vice president of the Furukawa Electric Group. “The greatest advantage of this system is the possibility of gradual investment in the pay-as-you-grow concept, in addition to the faster implementation compared to other technologies,” he said.
The project, which will start in Monterrey, will be the basis for izzi Telecom to define its commercial offer strategy, as well as its network topology the release said. The resulting new network has the potential to reach 1.6 million homes passed. izzi Telecom provides services in more than 60 cities in 29 states of Mexico through a network of more than 30,000 km of fiber optic cables and 77,000 km of coaxial cables.

In other news, Furukawa Electric Corp. has been considering expanding the 6,000-sq-m plant it established in Mexicali. The site, which manufactures fiber optic cables and other components for the telecom sector, opened in December 2017 with 150 employees.

Per a report in El Economista, the Mexicali plant was intended to export most of its production to the U.S., but it sees strong domestic demand. “The Mexican telecommunications market has grown in an interesting way, which is why we are interested in growing both the number of network operators and corporate clients we serve,” said Renato Ohno, manager of Furukawa Electric for Mexico and Central America. “If the expectation is fulfilled, we would not only be producing cables, but we would have a much wider portfolio than what we already have here with another warehouse next to the current one of the same size. It could double what is in Mexicali today regarding of space.”

Per a report in mexico-now.com, Foad Shaikhzadeh, president of Furukawa Electric LatAm and senior corporate vice-president of Furukawa Electric Group, said that “The new Mexicali plant offers both geographic and logistical advantages that support our goal of supplying the American market. In addition, with its proximity to the Pacific Ocean, the location offers excellent exportation capabilities to other continents. The facility also offers ready access to technical laboratories and a qualified workforce.”

Chroma Color Corporation (CCC) announced that it has acquired Polymer Concentrates Inc. (PCI), a privately held company that develops and manufactures color concentrates for the international plastics industry.

A press release said that acquiring PCI, based in Clinton, Massachusetts, further bolsters the manufacturing footprint of Chroma Color. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. “Over the past five decades, Polymer Concentrates Inc. has forged deep relationships with a wide range of customers in the automotive, communication technology, wire-cable, housewares, netting, packaging, and other specialty industries,” it said.

“We were very excited when we saw the opportunity to add Polymer Concentrates Inc. to the Chroma family,” said Chroma Color Corporation CEO Tom Bolger. “The company has a solid reputation in the marketplace and its facility is very close to our plant in Leominster, Massachusetts.” He added that the two companies complementary product lines, but distinctly different customer bases. “That makes this acquisition very attractive allowing us to offer a broader suite of products to the customers of both the legacy Chroma and PCI.”

Chroma Color Corporation serves multiple markets, including wire and cable. It was formed in 2018 when four well-established color concentrate companies (Breen, Hudson, Carolina, and Chroma Colors) combined their resources to form the single business entity.

The BSRM Group reports that it is establishing a wire manufacturing operation—called BSRM Wires—in Bangledesh that will focus on making wire products that are currently imported.

Per a story at www.thedailystar.net, the company plans to spend approximately $54 million to build a plant in Chattogram. It cited a "booming" steel industry that is supported by "mega projects that the government has set in motion," and that BSRM Wires hopes to "capitalise on the impending construction boom in Bangladesh."

In the story, BSRM Group Chairman Alihussain Akberali said that the plant will make four types of wire that are currently imported. He observed that while prices for raw materials of wire are very low in the international market but the prices of the finished goods end up being high for Bangladesh due to imports. "Local manufacturing will reduce their prices," he said.

A project proposal cited a combination of galvanized wire, LRPC wire, welding electrode and carbon wire. The plant will have the capacity to annually manufacture 77,000 metric tons of wires when it opens in 2020. The plant will create some 400 jobs, bringing the BSRM’s total employment to 4,700.

The main product focus of BSRM is rebar, but it also has a plant at Nasirabad in Chattogram that manufactures wire rod. That plant, described as "the first and only company to manufacture high-strength reinforcement wires in Bangladesh," has annual capacity of 24,000 metric tons of wire rod.

The new project has seen strong support from the banking sector, led by Dhaka Bank and six other banks —Bank Asia, City, NCC, Modhumoti and Mercantile—and one financial institution, the Saudi-Bangladesh Industrial and Agricultural Investment Company. The banks have invested in the project as it would have a direct impact on the economy, said Syed Mahbubur Rahman, managing director of Dhaka Bank. "The project has good prospects," he said.