POWER IN ACTION Hellenic Cables SA is one of the largest cable producers in Greece. Its cable products, which carry the trademark CABLEL®, include power cables up to 500kV, telecommunication and data transmission cables, enamelled wires and plastic and elastomer compounds. Joseph Altham reports on a company whose high voltage power cables are helping to meet the needs of Europe’s electricity networks.
H
ellenic Cables is part of Viohalco SA, Greece’s largest metals processing group. Hellenic Cables traces its origins back to 1950, the year when Viohalco first started making cables. Later, in 1973, Hellenic Cables was created as a separate entity within the Viohalco group. Along with decades of experience, Hellenic Cables has a modern production plant employing stateof-the art technology. The company successfully relocated its main factory from Inofyta to Thiva in 2003. The move gave the company more space, increased capacity and the opportunity to upgrade its equipment and develop high value added products. The focus of the Thiva factory is the manufacture of power cables,
but the company has retained a smaller factory in Inofyta for the production of plastic compounds. In 1999, Hellenic Cables was able to buy out a major company and move into Romania. Its Romanian subsidiary, ICME ECAB SA, produces power and telecommunication cables and overhead conductors and employs over 500 people. Hellenic Cables has invested heavily in the Bucharest plant to equip it with modern machinery, and now has a 40 per cent share of the Romanian market.
Compounds
Power cables are the company’s most important product. However, plastic compounds are an integral part of the business, and the company’s ability to manufacture plastic and rubber
compounds in-house helps it to stand out from the competition. With electricity, as with all forms of energy, safety is a vital consideration. For this reason, as the marketing manager at Hellenic Cables explained, the cable industry is tightly regulated to ensure quality and reliability. “Strict national and international standards apply to electricity cables. The standards lay down strict requirements for the type of conductor (aluminium or copper) to be used, and what sort of insulation and protection the cable will need, whether rubber or plastic. Industrial power cables need to have a second layer of protection in the form of a robust jacket or sheath. Protecting the cable demands a very specific type of compound, which has to meet the test requirements of the cable standards.”
