Sumitomo Electric opens £350 million subsea cable factory in Scotland

Nigg, Scotland. Sumitomo Electric held the official opening of its subsea power cable factory at the Port of Nigg on 19 October 2026. The Scotland Office published its announcement on 22 October. The company and government put investment in the facility at £350 million. This is capital investment in the plant, not its revenue or profit.

Sumitomo Electric describes the site as the UK's first manufacturing plant for high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) subsea cables. The site covers 15 hectares, with 58,000 m² of factory floor space. The company plans to produce 525 kV subsea transmission cables there, including for carrying power from offshore wind generation. Opening the factory does not mean every planned transmission link has already been built.

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Jobs and business significance

Sumitomo Electric says the facility is expected to create more than 200 direct skilled local jobs once production is under way. These are planned jobs, not a count of people already employed on the opening date. The government also points to wider supply-chain employment, but its announcement does not list new contracts available to small firms.

For businesses in engineering, logistics, equipment maintenance and other parts of the energy supply chain, the opening marks an expansion of manufacturing capacity in the Scottish Highlands. It does not itself announce an open supplier application process or a grant. Interested companies should check specific procurement routes and requirements with Sumitomo Electric and project customers before including prospective contracts in their business plans.

The plant is within the Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport boundary. The government separately mentions £25 million of seed funding for the freeport; that amount should not be added to Sumitomo Electric's £350 million investment as if it were the company's spending on the plant. This announcement introduces no new mandatory date or action for businesses.

Official sources: Scotland Office, announcement of 22 October 2026; Sumitomo Electric, opening statement of 19 October 2026.