LS Cable to add $689M factory in Chesapeake, creating 430 jobs

LS Cable & System is more than doubling its capital investment in Chesapeake manufacturing facilities and bringing its expected job creation total to 760.

The South Korean company will build a $689 million copper and advanced materials manufacturing campus in Chesapeake, expected to create 430 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Friday.

LS Cable is the parent company of LS GreenLink USA, which started construction in April on its $681 million-plus advanced cable manufacturing facility, expected to create 330 jobs, in Chesapeake.

“Today is about confidence in America,” Youngkin said. “Today is about confidence in Virginia. Today is about confidence in partnerships. Today is about relationships,” Youngkin said, adding that he met with LS Cable officials during his first trade mission in South Korea.

The GreenLink facility set a record for the largest capital investment in Chesapeake, and the LS Cable project will break that record. Its expected investment would be the single largest capital investment in Hampton Roads history.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce Paul Dabbar attended the announcement event and called the project an “economic success story for everyone.”

“This announcement is proof that America remains open for business,” he said, “and America leads in the cutting edge of new technology and innovation.”

The company plans to construct three facilities on the site: one for copper rod manufacturing, one for magnetic wires and one for rare earth magnet manufacturing. The company will establish three U.S. subsidiaries, said Patrick Shim, managing director for LS Cable & System.

Youngkin said to reporters: “The supply of the rare earth components that go into, particularly magnets that are used in a lot of our sophisticated weapon systems, come from China, and therefore we have a massive risk in the United States for that supply chain.

“It’s why this particular investment is so important,” he added, “because it creates a secure supply chain with trusted allies for these most critical components.”

According to the International Energy Agency’s Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2025, China is the leading refiner for 19 out of 20 strategic minerals, with an average market share of 70%.

LS Cable & System’s facility will recycle copper scraps and produce copper rods for cable manufacturing. It will supply the LS GreenLink facility and other LS operations throughout the U.S., Shim said. All of the copper scraps will come from domestic sources, said LS Cable & System President and CEO Bon-Kyu Koo. The magnet wires being made in the second facility are components of electric motors.

The third component, rare earth magnets, are components in electric motors and some advanced weapons systems, like the Javelin missile, F-35 fighter jet, nuclear submarines and unmanned aerial vehicles. Rare earth materials will come from Australia, be processed in Malaysia, Australia or Vietnam, and then sent to the U.S. for magnet manufacturing, Koo said.

“These capabilities are not simply an extension of our product lines,” Koo said. “They are strategic investments that strengthen American domestic supply chains, reduce reliances on foreign sources and support American national security priorities,” Koo said.

Square footage for the manufacturing campus will be released later because the facilities’ designs haven’t been finalized, Shim said.

In response to a question about power usage, Shim said: “There are a couple sites that we’re currently comparing. … We’re working with Dominion [Energy] on finalizing our power load amount, and … we’re kind of finalizing our project planning right now.”

LS Cable plans to complete the permitting process by the end of the first quarter of 2026, Shim told reporters, hopefully start construction by the middle of next year and be fully operational by late 2027, at which point the company will have filled the campus’ 430 jobs.

Founded in 1962, LS Cable & System develops and provides cable solutions for power grids and communication networks. The company has more than 6,500 employees and 40 subsidiaries across 17 countries.