LS Cable & System gains toehold in lucrative European market

LS Cable & System, Korea’s leading cable maker, will enter the European offshore wind power generation market, it said yesterday.

The company said it signed a 16 million euro ($21.6 million) contract with Dong Energy, a Danish state enterprise and the largest wind power generation company in Europe, to supply 150 kilovolt submarine cables, extra high-voltage underground cables and connection materials.

LS’s submarine cables will be used in an offshore wind power generation complex to be built in Westermost Rough off the southeast coast of the United Kingdom to transmit power from the complex to inland areas.

With the latest order, LS is entering the world’s most advanced offshore wind power generation market, the company said.

The European offshore wind power generation market is forecast to more than double from $13.5 billion in 2012 to $30 billion in 2020, according to the company. The global submarine cable market doubled from 1.5 trillion won in 2008 to 3 trillion won in 2011.

Europe also is home to advanced cable makers, such as Prysmian and Nexans. “Obtaining an order for submarine cables from Europe means that LS’s product competitiveness has reached a global standard,” the company said in a statement.

“It holds great significance in that we can now enter the European submarine cable market, following the U.S. and the Middle East,” said Ja-Eun Koo, president of the company. “We will focus all our strengths to new submarine cable markets in the future.”

LS obtained an order for a 500 billion won project from Qatar last year, marking the largest export contract in the history of the Korean cable industry.

By Song Su-hyun [ssh@joongang.co.kr]