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UK's first plant to build subsea cables opens in Highlands. The Japanese firm behind the factory has claimed it could create up to 250 direct jobs. The factory was opened on Monday (Sumitomo/PA) 2 hours ago News Briefings Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice. The UK's first subsea cable plant in the Scottish Highlands intended to "tackle bottlenecks" in the transmission of electricity has opened. The factory in the Port of Nigg, near Inverness, was built by Japanese firm Sumitomo to build cables which can carry electricity from wind farms. The project sits within the Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport, which provides companies special tax relief and customs status, and was given £24.5 million in Scottish Government cash. Sumitomo claims up to 250 direct jobs will be created by the factory's opening, with more than 400 supported through the wider supply chain. Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander (middle left) and First Minister John Swinney (middle right) attended the opening of the factory (Sumitomo/PA) UK Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh said the investment will "help continue the legacy" Scotland has for "powering the country". "Making subsea cables in Scotland will help us tackle the bottlenecks that block electricity from being transported across the country," she said. "We are building out our grid and building British while we do so." Scottish First Minister John Swinney, who attended the opening ceremony on Monday, also welcomed the factory, saying: "This facility puts Scotland right at the heart of the energy transition and is a strong vote of confidence in our people, skills and engineering excellence. "We invested £24.5 million in its construction to support hundreds of well-paid jobs in the Highlands and create lasting opportunities for future generations. "As the first factory of its kind in the UK, it will help unlock our enormous offshore wind potential while bolstering energy security. "We will continue to do all we can to create jobs, drive growth and build on Scotland's position as the UK's leading destination for inward investment outside London." Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander was also in attendance at the opening, adding: "Sumitomo Electric choosing the Highlands for the UK's first subsea HVDC cable factory shows what Scotland has to offer: the skills, ports and expertise to lead the energy industries of the future. "Scotland is helping to solve one of the biggest challenges in our transition to clean energy, connecting offshore wind to where it's needed most. This development is a huge vote of confidence. "The Port of Nigg is part of the Inverness and Cromarty Green Freeport, funded by £25 million of UK Government seed funding and designed to encourage private sector development. "I very much welcome this £350 million investment by Sumitomo Electric, and the hundreds of skilled jobs it brings. It shows exactly what growth in every postcode looks like in practice." Rob McDonald, the managing director of SSEN Transmission, described the opening as a "landmark moment" for the economy and the energy transmission, while Carl Trowell, the executive president of global capital at the National Grid, said it marked an "important milestone for UK homegrown energy". Local Liberal Democrat MP Jamie Stone said the area has a "proud industrial heritage", adding: "Today's investment by Sumitomo Electric is a significant step forward. It puts Nigg at the heart of the UK's transition to renewable energy and offers real potential for our local workforce and supply chain. "My hope is that this marks the beginning of a new chapter for Nigg, building on its industrial past to secure a future of long-term investment, high-quality jobs and renewed manufacturing ambition for the Highlands." MORE ABOUT

Sumitomo opens £350m Scottish cable factory. UK's first subsea HVDC manufacturing plant will support major transmission projects By Freya Hodge 10:52 on October 19, 2026 3 Mins Read L to R - Osamu Inoue, President & COO & CSO, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. Douglas Alexander, Secretary of State for Scotland, John Swinney First Minister of Scotland, Masayoshi Matsumoto, Chairman & CEO Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. CREDIT: Sumitomo Sumitomo Electric has officially opened its £350m subsea high-voltage direct current (HVDC) cable manufacturing facility at the Port of Nigg in Scotland, marking the launch of the first factory of its kind in the UK. The company said the new facility will strengthen domestic supply chains, reduce reliance on imported cables and support the expansion of the UK's electricity transmission network. Sumitomo Electric added that the plant, located within the Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport boundary, will manufacture 525kV XLPE HVDC subsea transmission cables and offshore wind cables. The facility covers 58,000 square metres of floor space across a 15-hectare site and represents one of the largest inward investments into Scotland in a decade. The Scottish Government and its agencies have provided £24.5m in grant funding towards construction of the factory, which is expected to create 200-250 direct jobs and support more than 400 jobs across the wider UK supply chain. The investment is supported by two major UK transmission projects, SSEN Transmission's proposed Shetland 2 HVDC link and National Grid's Sea Link project. National Grid has awarded Sumitomo Electric the contract to supply HVDC cable for Sea Link, while Shetland 2 has helped underpin the investment. The facility will support the development of subsea electricity transmission infrastructure designed to transport renewable power over long distances and address constraints on the UK electricity network. Training for the new workforce includes placements at Sumitomo Electric's Minato Factory in Japan, with employees subsequently transferring their knowledge to colleagues in Scotland. Sumitomo Electric Group chairman and chief executive Masayoshi Matusmoto said: "Sumitomo Electric is committed to support energy transition here in the UK and Europe with our state-of-the-art cable system technology and highest level of quality standard in the industry." He added: "With this new factory as our foundation, we will further deepen and strengthen our relationships with local stakeholders through hundreds of job creation, workforce development along with significant sustainability contributions." Scotland's First Minister John Swinney said: "This facility puts Scotland right at the heart of the energy transition and is a strong vote of confidence in our people, skills and engineering excellence." As the first factory of its kind in the UK, it will help unlock our enormous offshore wind potential while bolstering energy security." SSEN Transmission managing director Rob McDonald said: "The opening of Sumitomo Electric's new cable manufacturing facility is a landmark moment, not only for Scotland's energy transition but for its economy too - and we're proud of the role our proposed Shetland 2 subsea cable project played as an anchor for this investment." At SSEN Transmission, we're investing around £29bn over the next five years and we think facilities like this are just the beginning." National Grid executive president of global capital Carl Trowell said: "The opening of this facility marks an important milestone for UK home-grown energy and strengthens the capability needed to deliver the next generation of the electricity network."

Sumitomo Electric Lightwave on the road - 2026 OCP Global Summit. Sumitomo Electric Lightwave and Sumitomo Electric Group will exhibit and present at the 2026 OCP Global Summit, October 12-15, 2026, in San Jose, California. Its exhibit will span every layer of the data center, from below the chip to the connections between facilities, with solutions Sumitomo Electric Lightwave, Inc. develop hand in hand with its customers and deliver reliably, at scale. Dwayne Holst, Sumitomo Electric Lightwave's AI Data Center Automation Software Architect, will be a featured Expo Hall session speaker on Thursday, October 15, at 10:40 a.m. in the Expo Hall Theater, SJCC, Concourse Level. His session, multi-core fiber - a solution for scale up, out, and across, will explore the latest MCF innovations designed to address rack congestion in scale up/scale out segments of data centers. In booth C9, Sumitomo Electric Lightwave, Inc. will showcase its recent achievements that advance multi-core fiber (MCF) for significantly more capacity and interconnections within existing networks, helping operators link racks, rows, and facilities into a single, unified compute resource pool. These achievements are part of the recently completed SDM4 Multicore Fiber Multi-Source Agreement (SDM4 MCF MSA), whose members published Version 1.0 Technical Specifications defining requirements for a four-core multicore fiber intended for AI data centers, campus networks, and other short-reach optical links. Other exhibit highlights will include: Co-Packaged Optics Inside the package sits the engine of AI. Integrating Sumitomo Electric Industries' expertise in photonics, lasers, and optical connectivity, its co-packaged optics (CPO) solutions reduce the distance between components, increasing bandwidth, improving system performance, and enabling future scalability. Come to booth C9 to see an intact co-packaged internal wiring concept model and a fully integrated co-packaged model to the ASIC installed in a rack. Ask Sumitomo Electric Lightwave, Inc. about co-packaged copper (CPC) flexible flat ribbon and flexible printed circuits. Below the chip, Sumitomo Electric Lightwave, Inc. bond gallium nitride (GaN) layers to diamond substrates for high productivity and heat dissipation. AI-Optimized Rack Scaling up looks different in a rack that has been optimized for AI workloads from top to bottom. Explore its AI-optimized rack in booth C9 and ask Sumitomo Electric Lightwave, Inc. about vertical separation in your raceways, U-turn bends for drop cables, spring-loaded dust covers, and its time-saving installation tool. New for 2026 OCP Global Summit, its exhibit will feature the 2OU panel with improved cable management and built-in sliders. PON for Out-of-Band Management Its XGS-PON optical line terminal (OLT) and optical network unit (ONU) system, paired with its custom-made fiber systems, brings passive optical networking (PON) technology to intra-facility out-of-band management, reducing power consumption and rack space compared to active networks. The 1RU OLT provides 64 PON ports, high-density fiber cabling runs through the distribution area, and cassettes in the rack deliver LC duplex outputs. The system also supports network-wide monitoring and flow management. A passive optical distribution network and a redundant architecture with dual OLTs and ONUs support high reliability. With no active components in the distribution area and low-power OLTs and ONUs, power consumption stays low. And a minimal installation footprint, combined with high-density cabling, saves space. 42-Inch Fiber Cabinet Designed for hyperscale end-of-row cable and fiber "entrance" applications, its 42-inch cabinet Supports a total of 3,008 MMC ports in a single unit. This floor-standing industrial cabinet features front, rear, and side doors, internal cable management fingers, center cable lancer plates, caster/leveler adjusters, and top/bottom baffles for airflow. AI-Ready Connectors The latest in high-density connector evolution includes its PrecisionFlex(TM) MT & TMT multi-row ferrules, the award-winning 32-fiber MMC, and the multi-source Prizm(R) TMT expanded beam ferrules. Stop by for its Prizm(R) TMT dust demonstration, and see the 3M Expanded Beam Optical (EBO) technology, a fiber-optic interconnect solution designed to simplify connectivity. Award-Winning 16-Fiber Fusion Splicer Its AI-enabled Quantum-Ultra Ribbon 16-fiber splicer, which earned a near-perfect 4.5/5.0 in the Lightwave Innovation Reviews, speeds the deployment of high-performance, next-generation hyperscale networks and is ready to support any network, no matter the fiber count or pitch requirements. Together, these products enable rapid, reliable scaling up of high-density racks, scaling out across rows within data centers, and scaling across multi-location facilities. With operations in more than 40 countries, Sumitomo Electric is where you are. Building on a long history of industry, customer, and competitor collaboration, Sumitomo Electric Lightwave, Inc. design and deliver what's next. Its customer-derived solutions are built to perform at scale, always, and are Unique to You. Join Sumitomo Electric, your single-source supplier, in booth C9 at the OCP Global Summit and contact Sumitomo Electric Lightwave, Inc. anytime. To stay up to date on its Next Generation Thinking(TM), follow along online and connect with Sumitomo Electric Lightwave, Inc. on LinkedIn or X. ###