The Cable That Has to Cross the Seabed Before the Wind Farm Can Power Anything
Every offshore wind farm, regardless of its generating capacity, turbine technology, or distance from shore, requires a submarine power cable to transmit the electricity it generates from the offshore transformer platform to the onshore grid connection point, and for wind farms beyond approximately sixty kilometres from shore, an HVDC high-voltage direct current cable system whose converter stations transform the alternating current from the wind farm's collection system to direct current for long-distance submarine transmission and back to alternating current for injection into the onshore grid. The submarine cable is not an engineering afterthought in the offshore wind project development sequence but the component whose procurement lead time, manufacturing capacity constraints, and installation vessel availability most frequently determine the project's completion schedule and therefore the date on which the wind farm's revenue generation can begin. A five-hundred-megawatt offshore wind farm in the North Sea whose turbines are manufactured, foundations installed, and offshore topside structures assembled on schedule will generate no revenue until its export cable is installed and energised, creating the commercial and financial exposure to cable supply chain delay that offshore wind developers are managing through forward booking of cable manufacturing capacity years ahead of their intended installation schedules.
The subsea power cable market, valued at approximately $17.2 billion in 2026 and growing at over eleven percent annually toward $29 billion by 2031, is defined by a structural supply demand imbalance whose origins lie in the mismatch between the offshore wind industry's exponential project pipeline growth following the policy commitments of the early 2020s and the capital-intensive, long-lead-time cable manufacturing capacity whose expansion requires the factory construction, cable manufacturing equipment installation, and cable-laying vessel commissioning timelines measured in three to seven years that the offshore wind project pipeline began filling simultaneously across the North Sea, US East Coast, and Asian markets. The consequence of this supply-demand imbalance is the HVDC submarine cable backlog that extends to 2030 and beyond at the three primary HVDC cable manufacturers, Prysmian, Nexans, and NKT, whose combined production capacity determines the maximum pace at which the offshore wind industry's HVDC transmission projects can proceed from contract to installation.
Prysmian and the Manufacturing Capacity Race
Prysmian, the Italian cable manufacturer whose Miramare submarine cable factory in La Spezia and Arco Felice facility in Naples produce the HVDC extruded polymeric insulated cable that VSC HVDC offshore wind transmission systems require, is the largest subsea cable manufacturer by market share and by HVDC cable production capacity. Its forward order book extending through 2031 with major offshore wind HVDC cable contracts including the Dogger Bank offshore wind connection cable and the North Sea Link HVDC interconnector between Norway and the United Kingdom demonstrates the demand loading that has exhausted its near-term production capacity and extended project delivery timelines beyond the schedules that offshore wind developers had initially programmed into their financial models. Its Prysmian Marsaglia factory expansion, adding approximately thirty percent capacity to its Italian manufacturing operations, and its announced investment in a new US cable manufacturing facility in Brayton Point, Massachusetts, targeting the US offshore wind market whose domestic content requirements under the Jones Act and federal leasing conditions are creating the preference for US-manufactured cable that existing European production cannot satisfy, represent the capacity investment response to the supply shortfall that its order backlog demonstrates.
Nexans, the French cable manufacturer, operates its Aurora cable-laying vessel whose dynamic positioning and cable carousel capacity were specifically designed for the long HVDC cable lengths that North Sea offshore wind transmission projects require, supplementing its land-based manufacturing capacity with the installation capability that the cable's commercial value depends on. The Aurora's commissioning in 2022 added the dedicated cable-laying vessel capacity that Nexans required to compete with Prysmian's cable-laying fleet for the integrated supply and install contracts that offshore wind project developers prefer for managing the interface risk between cable supply and installation. NKT, the Danish cable company, expanded its Cologne Germany high voltage cable factory in 2022 and has announced further capacity expansion to address the offshore wind cable demand whose volume exceeds the production capacity of all three primary HVDC cable manufacturers simultaneously, creating the supply constraint that project developers are managing through procurement timeline flexibility and alternative routing options.
The Array Cable Market and the Tier Two Suppliers
While the HVDC export cable bottleneck receives the most attention for its impact on offshore wind project delivery, the inter-array cable that connects individual wind turbines within the offshore wind farm to the offshore substation platform represents a second supply chain constraint whose AC cable technology and installation requirements create demand on a different segment of the subsea cable market. The array cable market is served by a broader range of manufacturers including JDR Cable Systems, LS Cable, and Hellenic Cables, whose combined production capacity is also under pressure from the offshore wind project pipeline growth, creating the less-publicised but commercially significant second layer of the offshore wind cable supply chain constraint that project developers are managing alongside the HVDC export cable challenge.
Top 10 Companies in Subsea Power Cable Manufacturing and Installation Globally
- Prysmian Group: Italian cable manufacturer with the largest HVDC submarine cable production capacity and the Dogger Bank and North Sea Link cable supply; its Brayton Point US factory investment and its Miramare capacity expansion create the cable manufacturer whose production backlog through 2031 defines the offshore wind supply chain constraint that the entire industry is planning around.
- Nexans: French cable manufacturer with Aurora cable-laying vessel and HVDC cable production for North Sea offshore wind; its integrated manufacture and install capability and its Norwegian and European factory production create the competing HVDC cable manufacturer whose Aurora vessel adds installation capacity alongside manufacturing to serve the complete cable supply chain for offshore wind projects.
- NKT: Danish cable manufacturer with HVDC cable production expansion at Cologne Germany factory; its North Sea cable market focus and its announced capacity investment create the third HVDC cable manufacturer whose entry into the HVDC cable market alongside Prysmian and Nexans is the supply capacity addition whose completion is most closely watched by offshore wind developers whose project timelines depend on whether additional HVDC cable supply becomes available before 2028.
- JDR Cable Systems: UK array cable and dynamic subsea cable company with offshore wind inter-array cable supply; its TechnipFMC ownership and its UK North Sea array cable manufacturing create the array cable specialist whose production capacity serves the inter-array cable market for North Sea offshore wind farms where its proximity to major project sites creates the supply chain logistics advantage.
- LS Cable & System: South Korean cable manufacturer with submarine HVDC and HVAC cable for Asian and international offshore wind markets; its Korean manufacturing and its offshore wind project supply for Korean and Japanese offshore wind farms create the Asian submarine cable manufacturer whose production capacity serves the Asia-Pacific offshore wind market that European cable manufacturers cannot efficiently serve from their European production locations.
- Hellenic Cables (Cenergy Holdings): Greek cable manufacturer with HVAC and HVDC submarine cable production for Mediterranean and European offshore wind; its Greek Thiva factory capacity and its European offshore wind project participation create the Southern European cable manufacturer whose production capacity additions are contributing to the gradual increase in total European HVDC cable supply.
- Viscas: Japanese power cable company with submarine power cable for Japanese offshore wind and grid interconnection; its Japanese manufacturing and its domestic offshore wind market relationships create the Japanese cable company whose production serves the Japanese offshore wind transmission market as Japan's offshore wind development programme scales toward its 30 GW 2030 target.
- Sumitomo Electric Industries: Japanese cable manufacturer with submarine power cable for offshore wind and grid interconnection; its Japanese manufacturing scale and its international submarine cable project history create the Japanese cable company whose offshore wind cable supply serves both the domestic Japanese and international offshore wind markets.
- Subsea 7: Norwegian offshore engineering company with cable installation vessels for offshore wind power cable installation; its cable installation vessel fleet and its offshore wind installation engineering create the cable installation company whose vessel availability is the second supply chain constraint alongside cable manufacturing capacity that determines offshore wind project completion schedules.
- Boskalis: Dutch offshore and marine services company with cable installation vessels and offshore wind support; its heavy lift and cable installation capabilities and its North Sea offshore wind project participation create the marine contractor whose cable installation services complement the manufacturing output of Prysmian, Nexans, and NKT in determining the pace of offshore wind HVDC cable delivery.