Taihan Commits $360m to HVDC Subsea Cable Plant in South Korea
South Korea’s Taihan Cable & Solution has announced a landmark investment of USD 360 million toward the first phase of a new subsea cable manufacturing plant in Dangjin. The decision, formalized by the company’s board on July 16, 2025, responds directly to surging global demand for high-capacity submarine transmission infrastructure, fueled predominantly by the rapid expansion of offshore wind generation and the need for robust extra-high-voltage power corridors.
This “Submarine Cable Plant 2,” spanning approximately 215,000 square meters in the Godae District of the Asan National Industrial Complex, is strategically located adjacent to Taihan’s existing Dangjin site. Once operational, its capacity will eclipse the original facility by a factor of five, enabling Taihan to fulfill both ambitious domestic projects such as the West Coast Energy Highway and international supergrid initiatives. Notably, the plant’s initial phase—targeted for completion in 2027—is designed to manufacture 640kV HVDC cables as well as 400kV HVAC export cables, all facilitated by the latest Vertical Continuous Vulcanization (VCV) systems. This technology assures production scalability and the sophisticated insulation essential for advanced subsea HVDC applications.
Taihan’s acquisition of PALOS, the nation’s only cable-laying vessel (CLV), enables full turnkey supply—from engineering and manufacturing to logistics, installation, and lifecycle maintenance. PALOS has already demonstrated its capability on major projects, such as the Yeonggwang Nakwol Offshore Wind Project, with rapid and stable deployments even in challenging conditions typical of Korea’s West Sea. This vertical integration is particularly relevant as global HVDC submarine cable market projections climb from around USD 4.3 billion in 2022 toward an estimated USD 20 billion by 2029, driven by cross-border power transmission networks and accelerating offshore renewables.
From a technical standpoint, the decision to invest at scale in 640kV HVDC cable production positions Taihan among a select group of manufacturers globally with the capability to address both the length and voltage requirements of future interconnector and energy island projects. Beyond increasing supply resilience for Korea’s domestic grid transformation, this plant will serve the broader Northeast Asian and global markets, where competition among HVDC cable suppliers is intensifying. The Dangjin cluster’s proximity to logistics infrastructure—including immediate access to Pyeongtaek-Dangjin Port—eliminates bottlenecks for heavy cable export and underpins the region’s emergence as a subsea cable manufacturing hub.
With construction of the first phase to break ground this year and commercial production slated for 2027, Taihan Chair Song Jong-min described the move as a commitment to “lead the global submarine cable market with turnkey competitiveness.” The timing, scale, and vertical integration of this plant together signal maturation in Asia’s HVDC supply ecosystem and foreshadow increased competition for global offshore energy infrastructure contracts
