JDR secures approval for new cable manufacturing facility in Northumberland

The new facility will be built at Advance Northumberland’s Northumberland Energy Park in Cambois and bring more than 200 jobs to the area, in addition to a number of indirect jobs created through the supply chain.

JDR Cable Systems, part of the TFK Group, first announced plans to open the subsea cable manufacturing facility near Blyth, in September 2021.

Construction is expected to begin later in 2022 ahead of a 2024 opening. The initial project investment is estimated at £130M, which will be part funded by a grant from the BEIS Offshore Wind Manufacturing Investment Support (OWMIS) scheme.

JDR and TFK plans to raise the remaining funding with support expected from financial institutions and UK Export Finance.

The new facility is the first stage of JDR’s plans to expand its product portfolio to support the growing global renewable energy market, adding high voltage export and long length array cables to its existing capacity and product capabilities.

Further stages of the development could result in over 400 staff working at the site, with supplied products complementing JDR’s existing capacity provided by the company’s Hartlepool and Littleport UK manufacturing centres.

When complete, the facility will include a new catenary continuous vulcanisation line, making it the only facility in the UK capable of full start-to-finish manufacturing of high voltage subsea cables for offshore windfarms.