Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Upcoming Event

Best Places to Work in Virginia

Hamburger Menu Hamburger Menu

Tag: South Korea

$681M subsea cable plant coming to Chesapeake

A U.S. subsidiary of a South Korean cable manufacturer plans to build a $681 million subsea cable manufacturing plant in Chesapeake, the company announced Tuesday. The project is expected to create 338 jobs.

LS GreenLink USA’s Chesapeake subsea cable factory will be built at the Deep Water Terminal Site in Chesapeake, a 96-acre property located near the Port of Virginia and adjacent to the southern branch of the Elizabeth River. The plant will be approximately 750,000 square feet and will produce high-voltage, direct-current submarine cables used for offshore wind farms — the first such facility in the United States.

“LS GreenLink’s investment in Virginia will showcase the commonwealth as a leader in offshore wind industry manufacturing,” Youngkin said in a statement. “LS GreenLink has recognized that Virginia has the skilled talent, world-class logistics location and business environment that will allow it to serve its growing global customers for submarine power cables.”

A subsidiary of Anyang, South Korea-based LS Cable & System, LS GreenLink USA was awarded $99 million in advanced energy project tax credits by the U.S. Department of Energy in April, and Gov. Glenn Youngkin approved a $13.2 million grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund to assist the City of Chesapeake with the project.

To secure the project, the Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Chesapeake, the Hampton Roads Alliance and the Virginia Maritime Association. In addition to the state’s $13.2 million grant and federal funding, LS GreenLink is eligible to receive state benefits from the Port of Virginia Economic and Infrastructure Development Zone grant program, and the Virginia Talent Accelerator Program will support job training for the company at no charge.

“This state-of-the-art facility represents our commitment to pushing the boundaries of technology and engineering,” said Bon-Kyu Koo, president and CEO of LS Cable & System. “This facility will not only enhance our capability to meet the growing global demands for submarine power cables, but will also position us at the forefront of the industry.”

Subsea telecommunications cables have become a burgeoning industry in Hampton Roads. Virginia Beach is one of a few East Coast landing spots for subsea high-speed internet transmission cables, with a data center and cable landing station where subsea telecommunications cables MAREA, BRUSA and DUNANT connect Virginia to points in Europe and South America.

The announcement comes as Dominion Energy has begun installing monopiles — wind turbine foundation posts — 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach to construct its $9.8 billion, 176-turbine Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project, which is anticipated to be finished by the end of 2026. On Monday, Dominion announced its plans to buy a 40,000-acre lease off North Carolina’s Outer Banks for $160 million from Avangrid, a sustainable energy company.

Residents of Sandbridge, a beach community south of Virginia Beach, have opposed Avangrid’s plan to bring transmission cables ashore there, and the process has been delayed.

Youngkin to meet with Taiwan’s president

Amid rising tensions with China, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin will meet with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on his first international trade mission this month.

Youngkin will travel to Taipei City, Taiwan; Tokyo; and Seoul, South Korea, from April 24 to April 29, according to a Tuesday news release.

“I’m excited to represent the commonwealth in my first trade mission to Asia that will focus on economic development opportunities, our shared priorities and national security,” Youngkin said in a statement. “Taiwan, Japan and South Korea represent critical markets that will advance economic growth and prosperity in Virginia.”

Youngkin’s announcement comes on the heels of bellicose responses from China’s government over U.S. House speakers meeting with Tsai. In August 2022, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with Tsai in Taiwan, despite China’s announcement it would begin live-fire military drills encircling Taiwan as a result. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy plans to meet with Tsai Wednesday. Tsai landed in New York on March 29 and stayed through April 1, visited Guatemala and Belize, and is set to return to the U.S., landing in Los Angeles on Tuesday evening.

The meeting would “be an assault on the political foundation of Sino-U.S. relations,” a spokesperson for the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles told The Wall Street Journal on Monday. “This is the first red line that must not be crossed.”

In late 2022, Youngkin pulled Virginia from consideration for a $3.5 billion Ford Motor Co. electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant over concerns about the Chinese company that would operate the plant, Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd. The plant could have created 2,500 jobs in Pittsylvania County. In February, Ford announced it had chosen Michigan for the project.

Prior to Youngkin’s term, every Virginia governor for at least the last 20 years led a foreign trade mission within his first year. Youngkin’s decision to skip the July 2022 Farnborough International Airshow, held outside London, was also a deviation from previous administrations. In late June 2022, Youngkin’s chief of staff, Jeff Goettman, decided instead to send Virginia Secretary of Commerce Caren Merrick, according to The Washington Post.

In fall 2022, Youngkin told Virginia Business, that while he expected to go on foreign trade missions in the future, “I believe that the best opportunities for the commonwealth right now are for us to get our economic situation sorted out and to help the businesses that are here [to] grow and attract businesses that want to come to the United States or to Virginia.”

Virginia has 133 business establishments from Japan, 25 from South Korea and five from Taiwan, according to a news release.