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Doha Cables, a Qatar based cablemaker and subsidiary of El Sewedy Cables, will expand its production capacity for 400V and 500V cables to meet increasing domestic demand. Qatar will host the 2020 Olympics and the 2022 FIFA World Cup and is investing heavily in new infrastructure projects to provide support for planned growth of the local tourism industry. The company also stated that demand from the building sector has been rising. El Sewedy's largest areas of operation are in the GCC, North Africa and Egypt. The company has expressed its plans to expand into other rapid growth nations, including Russia and India.

Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA) and Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) announced that they will set up a joint venture to produce high voltage cables. The plant will be located in Jebel Ali and will be operational next year. Annual output will be 30,000 tonnes of high voltage cable, supplying the local market and GCC countries. The investment will amount to Dh500 million (US$136 million) and is expected to break even in the third year of the project.

The London Stock Exchange listed Indian company, Vedanta, will build a US$15M (Dh55M) continuous copper rod plant with annual capacity of 100,000 tonnes in Fujairah, UAE, which will be operational by December to capture the strong demand from regional infrastructure projects. Copper rods manufactured by the plant will be used in cables for power grids for the region and the company is expecting more demand coming from not only the UAE and the GCC but the whole Middle East.

Ducab-HV, a joint venture between the Dubai and Abu Dhabi governments, has opened a new factory in Jabel Ali, Dubai for the production of single core copper/aluminium conductor power cables with a voltage range of 66kV to 400kV. The plant will increase Ducab's production capacity by 15,000 tonnes of conductor per annum. The company estimates that production will meet the full infrastructural development demands of the UAE. In addition, production is expected to be sufficient to allocate 75% of total output for supplying the GCC, European and African export markets.

Nexans, the French cable maker, announced that its new cable plant in Qatar starts commercial production. Nexans's joint venture (JV), the Qatar International Cable Company (QICC) is located in Mesaieed Industrial City, which is 40 km from Doha. The new facility employs more than 100 staff, and it is expected that it will generate annual revenues of more than US$100 million by 2011. Nexans said that the plant will engage in the production of LV, MV and low-end HV power cables for energy infrastructure and building projects. It will also produce special cables for the oil and gas industry. Potential target markets include Qatar, the GCC and Yemen. The power cable plant occupies 19,000 sq.m. on an overall plot of 70,000 sq.m., close to a harbour that is reportedly developing as the largest in the Middle East. QICC was established in 2008, as a JV between Nexans (30%), Special Projects Company and Al Neama Industrial Co.