By LS Cable

LS Cable (Chairman & CEO: Christopher Koo) held the ceremony for the completion of the first-in-Korea submarine cable factory in Donghae City, Gangwon Province, on the morning of the 19th.

About 600 domestic and foreign officials participated in the event including the governor of Gangwon Province, Jin-Seon Kim, the mayor of Donghae City, Hak-Gi Kim, LS Group Chairman John Koo, Chairman & CEO of LS Cable Christopher Koo, and Chairman of LS Industrial Systems Cha-Yub Koo.

In April 2008, LS Cable invested KRW 180 billion for construction of a cable factory on a site of about 248,000m² in the Songjeong Industrial Complex near Donghae Port. In this factory the production line for special-purpose industrial cables has been operating since June of this year, and the new 250kV submarine cable line began full-blown production from September. The submarine cables will connect Jeju Island and Jindo Island, a distance of about 105km.

LS Cable received the KRW 330 billion order for the direct current connection project from KEPCO in February 2009. Installation will begin in May 2010 and is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2011. With this project, LS Cable is planning to establish internal engineering and construction methodologies with which it intends to enter overseas markets including Europe and South-East Asia.

Due to strong technological barriers, the high-voltage submarine cable market has been dominated by a few European companies, so Korea previously had to import the high-tech cables. LS Cable is now planning to develop new products by 2013 including a 500kV submarine cable as well as an umbilical cable that can transfer even gas and water.

Chairman of LS Group, John Koo said at the welcoming ceremony, “The Donghae Plant, the first-in-Korea submarine cable factory with cutting-edge facilities, will be the next growth engine of LS Group as it will serve as the advance base for green and submarine solutions businesses. We will support the factory in any way we can so that it will be the pioneer of future Blue Ocean projects.”