5 October, 2011

Manufacturer of wires, cables and copper rods Nuhas Oman LLC is in the final stages of signing an MoU with a leading Europe-based global producer for a joint venture speciality cables plant. Nuhas is also expanding overall capacity of its low and medium voltage cables by 25%.

The company already produces control, instrumentation and speciality cables at its Rusayl Industrial Estate factory, near Muscat city, but the plan is to have these cables spun off into the new speciality cables facility that will come up under the proposed joint venture.

This will be an import substitution for the entire region. Oxygen-free copper rods which the company already produces will be a key input for the speciality cables to be produced by the joint venture.

The new speciality cables plant is envisaged to have a capacity of 150,000 to 220,000 m per month. Expansions at the existing plant will relate to low voltage armoured and unarmoured cables (20 to 25%) & 33 kV voltage cables (50%).

Nuhas Oman makes low voltage cables of 0.6 to 1.1 kV, medium voltage cables up to 66 kV and speciality wires and cables for power control and instrumentation to withstand hostile environments. Its low voltage cables comprise single-core wires at a capacity of 100,000 coils per month, multi-core flexible cords (45,000 m per month), armoured and unarmoured power cables (500,000 m per month) and control, instrumentation and speciality cables (50,000 m). Its medium voltage category includes 11 kV cables (50,000 m per month) and 33 kV cables of similar capacity.

The plant has capacity to manufacture monthly 2,400 tonnes of oxygen-free copper rods and 3,000 tonnes of enameled copper wires. The company commenced manufacturing of oxygen-free high-conductivity cc copper rods by using technology from Outokumpu of Finland.