Asia Pacific Cable Industry Association and Cable Information Institute has selected the top 10 competitive submarine cable companies globally during 2020~2022, which are selected based on each cable company’s brand notability, quality level, after-sales service, innovation ability, consumer reputation, etc.
The top 10 competitive submarine cable companies globally in 2020 are Prysmian, Nexans, NKT Cable, HENGTONG, ZTT, LS Cable, SEI, Furukawa Electric, Orient Cable, Hanhe Cable.
The top 10 competitive submarine cable companies globally in 2021 are Prysmian, Nexans, HENGTONG, ZTT, NKT Cable, SEI, Orient Cable, LS Cable, Furukawa Electric, Hanhe Cable.
The top 10 competitive submarine cable companies globally in 2022 are Prysmian, Alcatel, HENGTONG, ZTT, NEC, Nexans, Orient Cable, NKT Cable, Baosheng Cable.
Compared with the list of "Top 10 Most Competitive Global Submarine Cable Companies in 2020", from aspect of the quantity, four Chinese companies enter the global top 10 in 2021, remaining the same as last year, which shows the strong competitiveness and strong comprehensive strength of Chinese companies in the global submarine cable industry. From the data, it is gratifying to see that HENGTONG is among the top 3 globally and ranks first in China this year, which is inseparable from HENGTONG's internationalization strategy, long-term investment in R&D and technological innovation. The rankings of ZTT and Orient Cable have improved by one and two respectively compared with those of last year, and the performance of Qingdao Hanhe Cable has also been rapidly improved compared with that of last year, demonstrating the strong resilience and steady upward development momentum of Chinese companies in the global submarine cable market.
According to the bidding market situation, with the blessing of territorial resources, technology application, historical performance and other advantages, the first-line enterprises Orient Cable, ZTT, and HENGTONG Optoelectronics occupy a relatively large share of the market. From November 2021, when submarine cable bidding was restarted to August 2022, the order amount obtained by ZTT, Orient Cable and HENGTONG Optoelectronics accounted for 37%, 33% and 16% respectively, accounting for a total of 86%. ZTT and Orient Cable account for 70% in total.
Benefiting from the lack of productivity of top enterprises during the period of offshore wind power rush installation trend in 2021, the second-tier submarine cable enterprises equipped with technical reserves represented by Baosheng Co., Ltd., Hanhe Cable Co., Ltd., and Qifan Cable Co., Ltd. have also achieved historical performance.
Submarine cables can be divided according to the current transmission mode: Alternating Current (AC) transmission and Direct Current (DC) transmission. At present some large foreign cable enterprises, such as Italy Prysmian, Japan Fujikura Cable, Japan Furukawa Co., Ltd., Japan Sumitomo Electric, France Nexans, South Korea LS Cable, the United States General Cable, etc., have the ability to continuously produce ultra-high voltage, large cross section DC submarine cable, and have submarine cable soft connector technology, while providing installation and laying integrated solutions.
Although the domestic enterprises still have a certain gap compared with the international leading enterprises in technology and brand, the overall product performance has reached or approached the level of leading international enterprises, and take up a larger market share by virtue of localization and cost advantages in the domestic submarine cable market. Some products have begun to participate in international market competition with good product quality and high cost performance.
The quantity of leading companies in the industry is relatively small, and there only exist tens of companies with production qualifications. The quantity of competitors is limited while the competition is generally ordinary. Submarine cable industry products are highly customized, different projects have different solutions. And submarine cable is a field of rigid demand in the offshore wind power and offshore communication construction industry. The market demand is strong, and the industry has a strong bargaining power downstream. Submarine cable industry has a series of entry barriers such as production technology barriers, qualification and certification barriers, production equipment and facilities barriers, etc. The entry barriers are critical, so the threat of potential entrants to the industry is not very strong. Submarine cable, as the products of offshore wind power construction of rigid demand, plays an irreplaceable and important role in the global communications and submarine transmission fields. The risk of being replaced is low.
The equipment for the production of submarine cables includes: dual-head or multi-head online annealing large puller, 120 disc (or more) 630 steel wire armouring machine, 150 lead press machine, 3×4500 or 3×10000 and above vertical cable forming machine, 200kv or 500kv catenary or tower interchange machine, etc. Generally, the production of submarine cable must be close to rivers and sea channels for convenient transportation, and the required transportation equipments includes: on-site flow active turntable, yard turntable, transport ship, etc.
From the perspective of the global submarine cable pattern, foreign countries are of oligarchic concentration, volume and scale. In recent years, China submarine cable enterprises have developed by leaps and bounds, forming a diverse and boosting situation, equipment and technology are innovative, walking in the forefront of the world, accumulating a lot of experience in investment and construction, and cultivating a large number of talents. Due to the features of technical barriers, many experience accumulations in European countries and Japan are not easy to obtain and promote. On the other hand, the exchange of cable industry training can set up a technical team for planning, design and production of submarine cables. Therefore, we can provide submarine cable turnkey project, which consist of a full range of technical services from plant site selection, production line planning, equipment selection, installation and commissioning, type testing, cable accessories, etc., and provide complete submarine cable solutions.