Taihan Cable & Solution prepares to deploy cable-laying vessel Scandi Connector

Taihan Cable & Solution held a safe-voyage ceremony Wednesday for its cable-laying vessel (CLV) Scandi Connector at Orient Shipyard in Gamcheon Port, Busan, the company announced Thursday.

The event was attended by Song Jong-min, vice chairman of Taihan Cable & Solution; Kim Dae-heon, chief planning officer of Hoban Group; Kim Min-sung, executive vice president of Hoban Group; and other senior executives and staff. Attendees offered wishes for the vessel's safe operation and successful project execution, and toured its key facilities and equipment to review operational readiness and management systems ahead of deployment.

The Scandi Connector is an 11,000-ton CLV for offshore wind power — the largest of its kind in South Korea — that Taihan Cable & Solution acquired. The vessel can load large volumes of submarine cable for long-distance transport, laying and burial. It arrived in South Korea and was formally handed over last month, after which the company carried out inspections, equipment maintenance and crew assembly in preparation for deployment.

The Scandi Connector is set to be deployed this month on the Yeonggwang Nagwol offshore wind power project, where it will bury submarine cables that have already been laid. Using a trencher — a remotely operated underwater robot (ROV) designed for burial — the vessel will bury the cables to a set depth below the seabed, protecting them from damage caused by fishing gear, ship anchors and other hazards.

Building on this, Taihan Cable & Solution plans to deploy the Scandi Connector alongside its existing CLV, the Phalos, in a two-track operation targeting major domestic and international submarine cable projects. "Drawing on our enhanced turnkey execution capabilities, we will provide customers with a differentiated submarine cable total solution and further accelerate our push into the global market," a company official said.