wiredInUSA April 2019

Heat trace contract

Addressing speed and cost

Image: Wuhu Jiahong

Chinese cable manufacturer Wuhu Jiahong New Material Co Ltd will supply self- regulating heat trace cable to Garinger, a US industrial supply company. A press release said that Wuhu Jiahong will supply 20,000m of self-regulating heat trace cables and 10,000m of constant wattage heating cables annually. The cables will be used for residential and commercial buildings, mainly for pipe freeze protection, in-pipe heat tracing systems, electric floor heating, and roof and gutter de-icing systems, although they can also be used for other sites such as offshore oil platforms. Wuhu Jiahong is currently building a 60,000m 2 factory in Wuhu, scheduled to open in 2020, that will be “equipped with fully automated testing equipment and is expected to multiply the existing production scale by five.” Wuhu Jiahong CEO, Steven Xu, said that the new factory will allow the business to “shift its production line to a new frontier, making it highly digitized and more connected ... [and] provide the company [with] a serious competitive edge over its competitors in the coming years.” Founded in 1993, Wuhu Jiahong’s cables conform to European and North American safety standards.

Image: Michael Ackland

Michael Ackland, the national director of Australia’s fourth largest telecomcompany, Vocus Group, has said: “The quality and price of internet access in Timor-Leste will only improve if the country reduces supply costs by building a submarine fiber optic cable.” He continued that operators in Timor-Leste spend $12 million a year on buying access to the international network via satellite, and that amount is multiplied later in costs for customers who still have slow and unstable service. Internet access in Timor- Leste is among the most expensive in the world. Vocus Group is interested in partnering with Timor-Leste for an eventual connection of the south of the country to the North Western Cable System (NWCS) that passes by the maritime border with Australia, in the Timor Sea.

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wiredInUSA - April 2019