Construction of JDR Submarine Cable Manufacturing Base in UK Started
JDR Cable Systems, a global supplier and service provider of submarine cables, has said it has officially opened the construction of its state-of-the-art submarine cable manufacturing facility near Blyth, Northumberland, UK.
The new facility, reportedly covering 69,000 square meters and costing a total of approximately £130 million, will provide vital submarine cable manufacturing technology for the offshore wind power market. Currently, 171 local jobs will be provided during the construction phase of the project.
According to the plan, the new plant will be operational in 2024. When completed, it will be the only UK site capable of realizing the full industry chain of submarine high-voltage cables for offshore wind power to support the growing global renewable energy market.
The Future Of Submarine Fiber Optic Cables
After the “One Belt, One Road” initiative, countries responded positively and began to compete for offshore fiber optic cable communications. The security of submarine fiber optic cable is an important part of the construction of the Maritime Silk Road. To meet the future demand for data transmission from the development of deep-sea oil and gas resources, submarine fiber optic cable has become a major technology in the construction of offshore communications around the world.
First, The Global Submarine Fiber Optic Cable Market
According to Gartner, the global submarine fiber optic cable market size in 2016 was about 14.6 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 8.8% over 2016, with a compound annual growth rate of 4.2%. Among them, the market size of mainland China reached $26.2 billion, an 8.3% year-on-year growth. The North American market grew by 3.9%, and the European region grew by 5.6%. Asia Pacific (including Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan) grew by 9.1%. Other markets grew by 2.6%.
And submarine cable construction costs are also growing, from $6.3 billion in 2016 to $7.3 billion in 2017, and the Chinese submarine cable market is expected to reach $5.6 billion by 2023. China’s mainland enterprises, especially submarine cable equipment companies have a greater voice in the submarine cable market. But there are also relevant data: the size of the submarine fiber optic cable market in mainland China is $6 billion (about 14.6 billion RMB) – $4.5 billion. Let’s look at the global market situation.
Second, The Global Submarine Fiber Optic Cable Market Size
According to statistics, the annual market size of global submarine fiber optic cable is about 3 billion U.S. dollars, of which, land fiber optic cable accounts for about 60%, and offshore fiber optic cable accounts for about 40%. With the development of submarine cable technology, the global submarine cable market has been expanding in recent years, and the market size reached 6.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2015.
It is expected that by 2025, the global submarine fiber optic cable market size will reach 51 billion U.S. dollars. Submarine fiber optic cable is one of the most important communication networks after the terrestrial communication network. It is an information system that integrates satellite, radio, TV, telephone, and other modern communication means and network technology to realize the connection of communication network and wide area network, and is an essential part of the national integrated communication network.
With the development of communication technology and the improvement of maritime communication capacity, modern submarine communication has become an indispensable and irreplaceable means of communication for national economic and social development.
Third, The Impact Of Submarine Fiber Optic Cable On Energy Development
With the continuous development of deep-sea oil and gas resources, the number of submarine fiber optic cables required for offshore oil and gas exploitation is also increasing. In the long run, with the large amount of data transmission needs generated by the future development of deep-sea oil and gas resources, the marine fiber optic cable has significant advantages.
On the one hand, with the global submarine cable data transmission bandwidth up to 25 Gbps, in the absence of fiber optic transmission, data can be transmitted directly from the seabed to shore. Therefore, the use of submarine fiber optic cable to transmit data to the land data transmission network is the inevitable trend of the development of marine communications for a long time to come.
On the other hand, submarine fiber optic cable can provide an infrastructure guarantee for energy development, and a large amount of data can be transmitted to shore through submarine fiber optic cable, which can effectively improve the efficiency of submarine resource development. For offshore oil and gas field development, it will face many problems, such as offshore oil spills, earthquakes, and other problems.
Fourth, The Current Situation Of The Submarine Cable Industry
At present, China’s submarine cable construction has been formed by the design, manufacturing, construction, and other supporting industry chain, the application of submarine cable products and services industry chain is complete. Submarine cable market demand is relatively strong, and with the domestic economic development brought about by the continuous improvement of submarine cable construction technology, China’s submarine cable industry is developing rapidly. 2017 China’s submarine cable market size of 8.604 billion yuan (excluding land). Year-on-year growth of 13.57%. 2016 market size of 9.572 billion yuan, an increase of 31.38%. the first half of 2017 market size of about 8.648 billion yuan.
In the current global submarine cable market, ZMS Cable Company has the international advanced level of submarine cable manufacturing technology, and product quality leading the world. It is understood that ZMS Cable currently has submarine fiber optic cable operation capability and is in the leading position in the submarine fiber optic cable market. Submarine cable is mainly divided into submarine fiber optic cable, submarine communication equipment, submarine fiber optic cable materials, submarine cable installation, maintenance, etc. At present, domestic submarine cable enterprises are developing rapidly and have become an important part of the global submarine cable industry.