wiredinUSA March 2013

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General Cable has announced the
appointment of Dr Günther Schöffner
as MD of its subsidiary Norddeutsche
Seekabelwerke GmbH (NSW). Dr
Schöffner will succeed Rudolf Stahl, who
has led the company since General
Cable’s acquisition of NSW. He will assist
Dr Schöffner in the transition and might
continue as an external consultant.
Dr Schöffner has an MBA, a PhD in
engineering, and nearly ten years of
senior management experience in energy
transmission and distribution with Siemens.
Management changes
The wire rope manufacturer Bridon
International has opened a technical
facility at its Doncaster, UK, site. The Bridon
Technology Center (BTC) will design and
test some of the largest ropes in the world,
and is thought to be among the most
advanced facilities of its type.
Bridon has invested over $7.5million in the
facility’s testing and analysis equipment,
which will evaluate rope constructions
for their suitability for use in punishing
conditions and enable the development
of increasingly sophisticated ropes to meet
the needs of customers across a range of
industry sectors.
The center is set to create five new skilled
positions, and support the work of Bridon’s
global production capability including the
Doncaster Wire Mill, where the company
recently invested in equipment upgrades.
Wire rope tech center
Responding to increasing rate of fiber to
the home (FTTH) deployments by providers
in the Middle East, Reichle and De-Massari
(R&M), a Swiss structured-cabling specialist,
is increasing its focus on this growingmarket.
Jean-Pierre Labry, executive vice president
of R&M Middle East, Turkey and Africa, has
confirmed that the company has been
working closely with telecom providers in
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and
Oman on large-scale FTTH projects.
Mr Labry also revealed that the company
is to launch new products to expand its
FTTx portfolio, including the new Venus FXXL
solution with an integrated single circuit
management (SCM) system and field
connectors.
“The FTTH market in the Middle East is
growing at a rate that far surpasses even
that in mature IT markets. A report from
the FTTH council MENA has shown that
the UAE already leads the global rankings
with an FTTH penetration of 64.8 percent.
Other countries in the region, in particular
Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Morocco,
Algeria, Egypt and Turkey, are also investing
in this technology and we are sure to see
widespreadpenetrationwithin a fewyears,”
said Mr Labry.
FTTH focus for Middle East
A statement from the Russian steelmaker
Novolipetsk Steel reports that the
company’s long steel division shipped
approximately 110,000 metric tons of rebar
during January 2013. Around 200 metric
tons was exported, and the balance sold
into the domestic market. Results are
expected to be similar for February.
Russian rebar
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