Germany’s Gustav Wolf GmbH announced that it has officially opened a factory in Rome, Georgia, that represents the first expansion of the business into the U.S.

A press release said that the 61,354-sq-ft plant, which was acquired from Swiss-based Brugg, has annual capacity of 3,000 tons of steel wire elevator rope, and that there are plans to expand that capacity. “We’re now manufacturing in the USA as well,” said Managing Director Dr. Ernst Wolf. “This represents an important step in the more than 130-year history of our company. It’s in keeping with our tradition to occupy the strongest markets on every continent.”

In the release, Wolf explained that with the addition, the company now has six rope plants on three continents. “Our aim is and has always been to be able to deliver our premium products to our customers within 24 hours. Establishing a base in the USA means that we can now accomplish this for all our customers throughout the world.” Asia, Europe and the U.S. represent a major market for specially constructed ropes, he said, adding that the idea of launching a U.S. plant stems back three years.

“For us, the start of production in Rome is an absolutely decisive component in the further international expansion of the Gustav Wolf Group,” Wolf said. “We want to and will grow with the markets. As a service provider, we help our customers in their dynamic development, thus securing local jobs as well.”

Reinhard Bänisch, the company’s division manager for steel wire ropes, said that there are high expectations. “From May onwards, we’ll be additionally installing some new machines. And that’s just the beginning. We plan to have 30 staff at the site and want to achieve a turnover of $12.3 million dollars.”

“Our ropes, produced for the major and leading elevator manufacturers, fulfill the highest standards,” said Richard Lindemeyer, who manages the U.S. site. He said that the elevator wire production would be exclusively for the American market.

The release said that company’s focus is not limited to wire rope. It cited Konrad Stahr, the company’s central quality officer, as noting that Gustav Wolf has other wire products. “We’re also one of the premium manufacturers in the ‘tire wire’ segment and a major supplier of the big tyie manufacturers such as Goodyear, Continental, Bridgestone and Pirelli,” said Konrad Stahr, the central quality officer at Gustav Wolf.

The Australian Anti-Dumping Commission (ADC) has ended an anti-dumping (AD) lawsuit on steel wire rods imported from Indonesia, South Korea and Vietnam.

A report at the ADC’s website said that there was dumping of the goods by Indonesia’s PT Ispat, but it was less than 2% and thus the case was dropped. It found that other exporters from Indonesia--and all exporters from Korea—represented a negligible amount, and were also dropped. Finally, it found that goods exported from Vietnam were not dumped, and thus it too was dropped, thus ending the matter.

Norddeutsche Seekabelwerke (NSW), a subsidiary of General Cable, has been contracted by Van Oord, an international marine contractor, to design, manufacture and deliver inter-array cables for Deutsche Bucht offshore wind farm.

Per a report in subsea world news, the NSW will deliver 45 km of medium-voltage submarine power cables for the Deutsche Bucht, which is owned by Northland Power. Delivery of the submarine cables is scheduled for spring of 2019, the company said.

Van Oord will deploy its offshore installation vessel Aeolus and cable-laying vessel Nexus for the installation works. The Deutsche Bucht offshore wind farm is located in the North Sea, approximately 95 km north-west of the island of Borkum. It includes 31 MHI Vestas Offshore Wind 164-8.0 MW (8.4 MW Power Mode) turbines, which will generate a total output of 252 MW..

Pourtier, a member of the Gauder Group, reports that it has received a multi-million euro order for a rigid stranding line from NKT Germany.

A press release said that Pourtier—which to date has commissioned more than 700 drum twisters and 120 rigid stranding and planetary lines—is supplying a new rigid stranding line, for 130 wires. It is designed to produce  3500 mm2 Cu round compacted cable and 4000 mm2 Al round compacted cables. The line is to be delivered early in 2019 to NKT’s operation in Cologne, Germany,  commissioned. The order represents repeat business, as Pourtier has previously provided lines to ABB plants in Sweden and the U.S. that are now part of NSW.

The Cologne plant was described as a state-of-the-art cable factory, designed to facilitate optimal cable production and an optimum of environmental protection. It produces medium- and high-voltage cables and accessories, fiber optic products, superconducting cables, submarine cables and VALCAP® Grid monitoring systems.

“It is a source of major satisfaction and pride to be involved, together with NKT Germany, in this very interesting still technically challenging project,” said Pourtier President Thierry Collard.

The Chilean government has awarded Huawei Marine the contract to build a subsea cable connecting with the country’s far south.

Multiple media reports cited a statement from the Chinese technology giant, in which it said that it will partner with CTR (Comunicación y Telefonía Rural) to build the Fiber Óptica Austral (FOA), a 2,800 km connection from Puerto Montt to the Patagonian cities of Caleta Tortel and Punta Arenas through to Puerto Williams in the far south.

Subtel, as a Vice Ministry of Telecommunication and Transportation Ministry of Chile, will invest in the new FOA to connect Las Lagos, Aysén and Magallanes regions. CTR was awarded the contract to deploy and operate the network, while Huawei Marine will provide the end-to-end submarine cable solution. The system, which has a design capacity of 16 Tb/s, is expected to be completed by the end of 2019..