LS C&S’ Donghae Plant, Asia’s Largest, Targets Overseas HVDC Undersea Cable Market

A whole of the fourth underseas line of LS Cable & System’s Donghae Plant and vertical continuous vulcanization(VCV) tower.

The vertical continuous vulcanization (VCV) tower of LS Cable & System’s plant in Donghae, Gangwon-do, is a super high-rise facility adjoining the East Sea, which can be seen from Donghae Expressway, 2 km from the tower.

The height of the tower stands at 172 meters, equivalent to that of a 63-floor building.

It is responsible for a core process involving copper conductors with XLPE insulation to shut off other electric currents and heat and prevent decay and cracks.

The height of the tower is a symbol of LS C&S’s technology power, capable of producing a high-voltage DC undersea cable, extending dozens of km in length and 30 cm in diameter, continuously. To this end, the company has employed technology to produce a high-voltage DC undersea cable, leading to the production of quality insulated products.

The fourth plant is responsible for exclusively producing HVDC undersea cables, considered as value-added products.

Senior Executive Vice President Kim Hyung-won of the Business Division at LS Cable & System said, “Currently, a 180-meter-high VCV tower is being built in Europe, and our tower is Asia’s biggest.” He said LS C&S is on a part with Europe.

LS C&S’s plant in the Songjeong Industrial Complex in Donghae is the center of the company’s undersea cable business.

Officials with LS Cable & System’s Donghae Plant in the Songjeong Industrial Complex in Donghae, Gangwon-do, look into undersea cables. (Photos: LS C&S)

The combined floor space of the four plants stands at 270,000 sq. meters, 38 times bigger than a soccer stadium.

The first and the fourth plants were dedicated in November 2009 and May 2023, respectively.

The fourth plant cost 200 billion won and an additional 155.5 billion won was poured to expand related advanced infrastructure facilities. Facility investments LS C&S has made since 2008 have topped 800 billion won.

The four plants are operated like one since they are connected via the passage, dubbed “Gang Way.” The production of high-voltage DC undersea cables is done in a six-stage process without interruption.

Yeo Sang-cheol, head of the Donghae Plant, said, “The limit for loading a cable into a ship stands at 10,000 tons in weight and 150 km in length, but the length of the cable is unlimited theoretically.”

As LS C&S has been recognized for its technology power, the company won a 2 trillion won order to supply HVDC undersea and land cables from TenneT, a state-run utilities company of the Netherlands, in May.

Besides, LS C&S supplied HVDC cables to the off-shore wind power complex in Changhua, Taiwan, and the Vanguard off-shore wind power complex in the North Sea, UK.

Figures, released by the electronic notice system of the Financial Supervisory Service, showed that LS C&S saw order backlogs surge to 3,7943.9 billion won in the first half of 2023, a 32.2 percent jump over 2,869.8 billion won during the same period of the previous year.