wiredinUSA November 2014

wiredInUSA - November 2014

ASIA / AFRICA NEWS

INDEX

Huawei Marine is to manufacture subsea

cable, and other wet plant, for the Far East

submarine systemunder a turnkey contract

between Huawei Marine and Rostelecom.

The multi-million dollar investment will

enhance communications for the far east

region of Russia, and provide high capacity

connectivity across the Sea of Okhotsk.

The repeatered system, over 1,900km long,

will be deployed in two segments, the first

linking Okha in Sakhalin Island with Ola in

Magadan, and then on to Ust-Bolsheretsk

in Kamchatka which currently relies on

satellite infrastructure. Each segment of the

Far East submarine cable system will have

an initial 2-fiber pairs lit, and is designed to

have a capacity of 1.6Tbps. The project is

due for completion in late 2015.

Russian subsea

connection

Egypt-based investment bank EFG

Hermes has made its first investment

beyond the borders of the Middle East

and Africa with the acquisition of a 49

percent stake in EDPR France.

The $208 million investment will give the

bank a stake in EDPR France's portfolio

of 33 operational wind farms with a

combined capacity of 334MW. The

transaction also marks the launch of a

new direct investment strategy by the

bank and a growing interest in renewable

energy. The deal is EFG Hermes’s second

in the renewable energy sector within a

year, following an earlier commitment

via the InfraMed fund to establish the

Arab world’s first utility-scale wind farm in

Jordan.

Under the terms of the agreement, EFG

Hermes’s private equity arm will manage

the investment vehicle, while EDPR

Francewill retain operational control over

the acquired assets. EDPR France has a

15-year feed-in tariff arrangement with

Électricité Réseau Distribution France for

the energy generated by the wind farms.

Renewable

investments

Work on a 5MW pilot station for both solar

and wind energy is expected to start in

southern Bahrain within the next three

months. According to a report in the Gulf

Daily News, the station will be built on

120,000 square miles of land near the Al

Dur Power and Water Plant.

The new plant is among efforts by the

Electricity and Water Authority (EWA) to

develop renewable energy sources, and

will be linked to Bahrain’s power distribution

grid by the first quarter of 2015. A tender

has already been issued, and the minister

of state for electricity and water affairs,

Dr Abdulhussain Mirza, said a company

specializing in renewable energy plants will

be awarded the project before the end of

the year.

Hybrid

plant

Orange Electric claims that a significant

shortage of copper scrap is blocking

growth in Sri Lanka. In an attempt to

solve the problem, the manufacturer has

establishedacopper scrap recyclingplant.

Situated in Colombo, the new plant is

said to be capable of processing “all the

copper waste available in the country”

(estimated at 200 tonnes per month) which

has the potential to meet over 20 percent

of domestic copper wire demand.

It has been estimated that the facility could

achieve a foreign exchange saving of $16

million. According to Kushan Kodituwakku,

Orange Electric's managing director,

the shortage of copper is interfering with

the everyday business opportunities of

traditional and small industries across Sri

Lanka and that despite a government

ban, Sri Lanka has been exporting copper

waste to India and Japan.

Customs reports state that Sri Lanka has

imported over 67,000 tonnes of copper wire

andcablesince2007.Kodituwakkubelieves

that readily available domestic copper

scrap would result in a higher-grade cable

than the imported scrap can produce.

Sri Lankan copper

fighting imports