July 26, 2022 – Southwire broke ground on a new copper rod manufacturing plant in Carrollton, Ga., in August 2021, and expects the project to be complete later this year.

“Supply chain issues have slowed down the construction progress some, but our contractors have assured me that our planned commissioning time will be on schedule,” said Doug Teate, director of SCR Project Management. “The team is working very hard to achieve this goal.”

The plant will contain an SCR-9000S copper rod system and employ the company’s Southwire Continuous Rod technology.

“Replacing our current system, which is 40 years old, improves our business continuity and ensures the longevity of copper rod for Southwire,” said Will Berry, senior vice-president, Engineering and Modernization.

In related news, Southwire announced the installation of new medium-voltage production technology at its manufacturing facility in Heflin, Ala., as part of ongoing modernization efforts. The upgrades are focused on “increasing productivity and velocity, eliminating waste and becoming leaner”.

The modernization efforts involved increasing MV production at the facility through the expansion of the continuous vulcanization (CV) tower. This expansion allowed for the implementation of four CV lines, a jacket line and a test set. These upgrades allow greater flexibility to extrude both cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) and ethylene propylene rubber (EPR) insulation for medium-voltage products, explained the company.

“This optimization will improve material flow, reduce raw material handling and modernize aging assets,” said Scott Roulaine, director, Modernization.