News Archive

GFI Enterprises

23.10.07
PRYSMIAN CABLES TO BUILD NEW PRODUCTION FACILITY IN USA FOR HIGH AND EXTRA HIGH VOLTAGE CABLES

Confirming its market leadership position, Prysmian recently secured major Submarine and High Voltage cable project assignments in the United States.

Milan, October 23, 2007 - Prysmian Cables & Systems, a global leader in Power and Telecommunication Cables and Systems, will invest approximately 25 million Euro (the investment was discussed in the last HY Board of Directors meeting) to expand its manufacturing operations in the United States to produce High and Extra-High Voltage power cables by the first half of 2009. In North America, Prysmian presently has four production plants, two in the USA (Abbeville and Lexington, South Carolina) and two in Canada (St. Jean, Quebec, and Prescott, Ontario). In 2006 NA represented 17% of the total Prysmian group’s sales, amounting to over 5 billion euro.

The new facility, to be located in Abbeville, South Carolina, adjacent to its existing Medium and Low Voltage power cable manufacturing facility, will consist of a state of the art Vertical Continuous Vulcanization (VCV) process housed in a 325 foot tower scheduled to begin operation within the first half of 2009. As a result of this investment, Prysmian will further reinforce its market leadership position and expand its North America product range to include Extra High Voltage Extruded power cables. As a global player, Prysmian operates several plants dedicated to High and Extra High Voltage power cables in France, Finland, South America, Italy and China.

This investment in High and Extra-High Voltage power cables will better position Prysmian to serve the North American commercial and utility markets’ growing needs and support underground transmission system development in North America. Prysmian’s proven ability to design, install and maintain such underground transmission networks utilizing extruded power cable at Extra High Voltage ratings, underscores this strategic investment. Prysmian’s North American High Voltage customers include Commonwealth Edison, Consolidated Edison, Nevada Power, NUSCO, APS and Hydro Quebec.

In the United States, Prysmian has recently been awarded strategic projects in the Submarine power link sector including the Trans Bay cable project in California, and in the High Voltage transmission link sector the Glenbrook Cables/Middletown-Norwalk 115kV underground High Voltage cable project and part of the 24-mile Middletown-Norwalk 345kV project, which is the largest XLPE cable installation of its class in North America.

15.06.07
OFFSHORE EUROPE EXHIBITION 4TH-7TH SEPTEMBER 2007

Offshore Europe 2007, held at the AECC in Aberdeen, Scotland - the oil and gas capital of Europe, will help you maximise your knowledge and E&P productivity by addressing the challenges and technological advancements driving your industry.

Here is a taster of what you will find at Offshore Europe 2007

• The biggest ever Offshore Europe will enable you to evaluate products and services from over  1,400 exhibiting operators, NOC's, IOC's, service companies, contractors and suppliers from around the world
• The free SPE Technical Conference chaired by Mark Carne (Executive Vice President and Managing Director, Europe - BG Group) will increase your technical knowledge and expertise with sessions exploring all areas of E&P
• Learn how to integrate your people, processes and technologies at The Intelligent Energy Zone
• Oilcareerfair will be at Offshore Europe all week with careers advice and job opportunities from across the industry
• To find out what else is happening please visit the Offshore Europe web site

10.05.06
FORMER APPRENTICE BUYS WEIR PUMPS

Hundreds of jobs have been saved after one of Scotland's richest men bought the historic engineering business where he started his career.

Jim McColl, 55, who owns Clyde Blowers, bought Glasgow-based Weir Pumps in a £100m funding package.
The deal will see the firm incorporated into a new company, Clyde Pumps Ltd, and a new factory built in Glasgow.

Mr McColl said as a result of a strong order book, the company has a healthy workload for the next two years. The businessman was at number 10 in last month's Sunday Times Rich List for Scotland, with a fortune of £435m.

Track record
He is regarded as one of Scotland's top engineers for what he has done at Glasgow-based engineering group Clyde Blowers and he was awarded an OBE in 2001. Mr McColl started his career as an engineering apprentice with Weir Pumps. "I am delighted to welcome Weir Pumps (Glasgow) into our portfolio of companies," he said. "Over two centuries, the business has demonstrated that it has an outstanding track record of designing innovative pumping solutions for customers across a wide range of industries.
"We believe that this heritage, complemented by a highly skilled workforce, will provide us with a strong platform to significantly grow both market share and profitability." He added that a new "world-class" plant would be ready by the end of March 2009. "

Weir Group announced a year ago it would be relocating Weir Pumps out of its Cathcart site in Glasgow by mid 2009. The unit makes custom-engineered pumps for the upstream oil and power generation markets.
Weir said it would receive around £45 million for the business, which generated revenues of £70.5m and profits of £4.2m in 2006.

07.12.06
NEW RUSSIA-CHINA-INDIA OIL PIPELINE BEING DISCUSSED

An oil pipeline running from Russia to India via China is under active consideration following an initiative put forward four years ago, an industry expert said Wednesday. "The project is very likely to succeed," said Xia Yishan, a senior research fellow with the China Institute of International Studies, at the Third Sino-Russo-Kazakh Oil and Gas Forum in Shanghai.

Xia, who is an expert in the National Energy Leading Group and has been actively involved in big oil and gas projects in the country, said several options are under discussion about the contours of the pipeline.

One is for it to run from Russia to Altay in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in Northwest China, climb the Tianshan Mountain, and extend south to Kunlun Mountain till it reaches India. "India is the most active party in the project," Xia said. "China, as the country through which the pipeline will pass, will also benefit" by getting a financial return as a transit country and possibly securing cheaper oil.

However, Vladimir Saenko, head of the State Energy Policy Department of the Ministry of Industry and Energy of Russia, said it was still too early to discuss the contours of the pipeline. "The talks will be arduous and prolonged," he said. "It may be simpler to ship the oil by sea."

China’s first cross-border pipeline started pumping oil from Kazakhstan in May, carrying around 200,000 barrels of crude a day.