U.S.-based Kato Cable is expanding its production plant in Mankato, Minnesota, as it continues its growth story.

Per its website, the company, founded in 2006 by Eric Else, the chairman and CEO, started by manufacturing harnesses for the power generation space. Its current product range includes harnesses and assemblies for multiple applications, including medical, marine, industrial, motorcycle, harnesses and assemblies, agriculture, oil and gas and more.

The company’s plant, located on 12 acres, was built in 2006 and expanded in 2015. Per a report in the Mankato Free Press, the company plans to increase its work force from 135 to more than 200 within three to five years of completion. The expansion will add 40,000 sq ft. to the Power Drive campus. In 2021 the company had acquired space in an existing facility in North Mankato, but more space was needed.

Of note, the article included details about how one of its products had an impact for one employee. Engineering manager Matt Lukasek had heart surgery that was aided by a medical robot that relies on some of the company’s cables. “The products we make right here in Mankato are changing lives, and to have it change another person’s life, that’s a big deal,” Lukasek said. “To have it change your own life? It’s hard to put that into words what that feels like. It’s pretty crazy.”

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.

Taihan Cable & Solution Co. (Taihan Cable) held a completion ceremony on Sept. 9 at its new optical fiber plant, Taihan Kuwait, located in the Mina Abdullah Industrial Area, southeast of Kuwait City.

Per a report in Yonhap, the factory spans 5,000 sq m, with production facilities and testing equipment identical to those at Taihan’s Dangjin cable factory. The Kuwait plant will help Taihan Cable expand into the Middle East market. The project was done through a partnership with a local builder, Rank General Trading and Contracting Co.

Taihan Kuwait was scheduled to start full-scale production of certified production in September. With the addition of the Kuwaiti plant, Taihan Cable has seven production facilities, the others include three in South Korea, one in Saudi Arabia, one in South Africa and one in Vietnam. The ceremony included speeches, a report on the establishment of the corporation and a tour of the factory.

The article said that Taihan Cable aims to dominate the Kuwaiti optical cable market, which has relied entirely on imports. Demand for optical cables is expected to rapidly grow in line with the launch of “New Kuwait 2035,” a mid-to-long-term national development plan. “Taihan plans to secure the Kuwaiti market and expand into neighboring GCC countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, leveraging its network which has been supplying cables throughout the Middle East for over 50 years.”

“Establishing production infrastructure in Kuwait, following our Dangjin cable factory, will allow us to respond actively to the growing global demand for optical fiber cables,” said Taihan Cable Vice Chairman Song Jong Min. “We will continue to enhance national competitiveness by expanding global operations through continuous localization of production.”

AT&T has agreed to remove some six miles of lead cables that have been submerged in Lake Tahoe for decades, per a settlement agreement.

Per multiple news reports, AT&T will remove approximately 107,000 pounds of unused cables in the agreement with the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA), which in a 2021 lawsuit claimed that lead from the cables was contaminating multiple areas of the lake and creating a widespread risk of exposure. Elevated levels of lead were confirmed in both the water and sediment around the cables, according to the lawsuit. Lake Tahoe, a freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada, straddles the border between California and Nevada.

CSPA said that the paper-wrapped copper wire cables are composed of spiral-wound steel rods and coated with a fiber layer impregnated with bitumen tar. Each foot of these cables has about 3.39 pounds of lead, and there are about six miles of submerged cables. A study by scientists hired by the CSPA’s attorneys found that biofilms (algae) that are a food source for fish had lead concentrations 67,000 times higher in samples taken from the cables compared to those taken from a rock.

AT&T maintained that multiple expert analyses found that the telecom cables in the lake pose no threat to public health or the environment. “While we’re confident in the strength of our case and the safety of the cables, this settlement represents an amicable resolution to litigation.”

The cables were discovered 12 years ago by divers on the sandy bottom of the lake by the Pacific Bell Telephone Company a century ago. Three years ago, the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA), a nonprofit advocacy group, sued AT&T to have them removed after their discovery.

Poland’s Herco Sp. z o.o. (Herco), has started to expand its plant, an initiative that it reported was made possible through co-financing from the European Union.

Per a statement and details at the company’s website, Herco reports that the company produces its nails at its factory in Cieladz, using modern nail headers. The company was founded as a cement mixer in Lowicz, Poland, in 1993, and two years later a new production site was bought in Rawa Mazowiecka, a small town 70 km from Warsaw. In 1999, it bought its first nail machines and two years later it bought equipment from Enkotec, whose models now make more than 80% of its nails.

In 2009 Herco invested in building a new and energy efficient factory. In 2010, the company moved to the new production unit in Cieladz, 10 km from the old location in Rawa Mazowiecka. That allowed Herco to increase the efficiency and the quality of its products, while reducing the environmental impact. In 2014, its state-of-the-art, hot-dip galvanizing line for small parts and case nails, started operations. Now, it is making a further investment, this time by the European Funds for Modern Economy program, using the SMART Path action to further its R&D innovations.