Subsea connection

UK: JDR Cables welcomed its new horizontal lay-up machine (HLM) in September, doubling the plant's production capacity. CEO David Currie reveals why the future looks bright.

The cable manufacturer, based in Hartlepool, north-east England, now has the biggest HLM in the UK and the second largest in the world.

"With the addition of that machine, over the next three to five years we can flex the capacity to probably three times the volume we do today," Currie said in the crowded WindEnergy Hamburg exhibition hall.

"We have a five-year strategic plan. Within that plan, in my view, I need to make one or two minor tweaks to the factory and I can treble the size of it in nine months.

"It increases, significantly, the capacity of the business and it enables us to do more renewable products and oil and gas products. It's a state-of- theart machine," he added.

Currie was also confident the next few years will see increased activities in markets beyond the UK.

"We have a facility in Houston; we have a facility in Singapore; because of our oil and gas business. Those markets are asking me, because I'm there, to do renewable projects. It is exciting to be in an industry that is at the point of commercialisation and growth that renewables is," Currie said.