12 Power Cable Stocks for the Energy Transition

Prysmian (PRY.MI)

HQ 🇮🇹 Italy · Market cap $44B · Yahoo Finance ↗ · Investor Relations ↗

Transmission order backlog of approximately €17 billion as of Q2 2026, with a further €2 billion of awarded orders not yet booked.⁶

Prysmian Group (PRY) is the world’s largest cable manufacturer by revenue, reporting FY2025 sales of EUR 19,650 million across 109 plants in more than 50 countries.⁷ Listed on Borsa Italiana, it reached that scale through a run of acquisitions from Draka to Encore Wire and Channell. In August 2026 it agreed to acquire Atkore, a US maker of electrical conduit and cable management systems, at an enterprise value of about $3.8 billion, a further step toward cable-adjacent products.⁸ The energy transition exposure sits in one segment, Transmission: a minority of group revenue, but its highest-margin business, covering HVDC submarine cable, land interconnectors and offshore wind export cable. The segment’s adjusted EBITDA margin reached 21.2% of sales in Q2 2026, its best yet.⁶

Prysmian manufactures cable and handles installation through its own fleet of seven cable-laying vessels, with an eighth due in service by early 2027.⁹ That fleet allows it to bid for large interconnector and offshore-wind contracts covering both supply and installation.² The Eastern Green Link 4 contract, signed in February 2026 at over EUR 2.3 billion to link Fife in Scotland with Norfolk in England, is representative of the scale involved.¹⁰ The IEA puts the European manufacturers, Prysmian alongside Nexans and NKT, at around two-thirds of the global HVDC market, with capacity slots booked until 2030.⁴

Prysmian combines a large transmission backlog with its own submarine-cable manufacturing and installation capacity.⁶⁹ Building and expanding a cable-laying fleet requires substantial capital and takes several years.⁴ Transmission remains a minority of group sales; building wire, distribution cable and industrial specialties also influence earnings.⁶⁷

Nexans (NEX.PA)

HQ 🇫🇷 France · Market cap $7.3B · Yahoo Finance ↗ · Investor Relations ↗

PWR-Transmission adjusted order book of €7.7 billion as of 30 June 2026, essentially flat versus December 2025, subsea-driven with visibility to 2028.¹¹

Nexans (NEX) is a Paris-listed cable manufacturer that has spent five years rotating its portfolio toward electrification, divesting its telecom business, AmerCable and Lynxeo, and completing the sale of its Autoelectric harness unit in July 2026.¹² It reported FY2025 sales of EUR 6.1 billion at standard metal prices,¹³ and all three continuing segments are electrification-linked: HVDC transmission, medium and high-voltage grid cable, and low-voltage connection.

Nexans manufactures and installs cable. Its three-vessel fleet includes the Nexans Electra, formally handed over in May 2026, whose three turntables provide a combined cable capacity of 13,500 tonnes and allow it to bundle-lay up to four cables simultaneously.¹⁴ Subsea manufacturing centres on an expanded Halden plant in Norway. On the Tyrrhenian Link the company laid 500 kV HVDC cable at 2,150 metres, which it describes as a world-first installation depth for a cable of that type.¹⁵

Nexans is more concentrated in electrification than Prysmian following its exit from telecom, harnesses and automotive.¹² Its June 2026 acquisition of Republic Wire, an Ohio low-voltage building-wire manufacturer acquired for an enterprise value of about EUR 680 million, expands its presence in that market.¹¹ Nexans remains a major Western submarine-cable supplier, although its transmission order book and installation fleet are smaller than Prysmian’s.⁶¹¹¹⁴

NKT (NKT.CO)

HQ 🇩🇰 Denmark · Market cap $7.9B · Yahoo Finance ↗ · Investor Relations ↗

High-voltage order backlog of €13.5 billion as of Q1 2026, around 95% of it contracted with European transmission system operators.³

NKT A/S (NKT) is a Danish pure-play power cable manufacturer listed on Nasdaq Copenhagen, making and installing high-, medium- and low-voltage cable systems across 13 production facilities in Europe.¹⁷ Its business mix is more concentrated than either Prysmian’s or Nexans’. The Transmission segment, renamed from Solutions in January 2026, accounted for roughly 60% of revenue in FY2025 and covers the design, manufacture and installation of extra-high-voltage AC and DC cable systems for offshore wind, long-distance interconnectors and onshore HVDC corridors.¹⁷

NKT installs its own cable too, with the smallest fleet of the three European majors: one vessel working today, the NKT Victoria, and a second, the NKT Eleonora, due to enter service in 2027. The larger constraint is factory capacity, and two expansions address it. The Karlskrona site in Sweden, designated the first European Strategic Net Zero project under the Net-Zero Industry Act, is being enlarged to become the world’s largest high-voltage offshore cable factory,¹⁸ and a roughly EUR 100 million expansion at Cologne, tied to onshore awards from the German grid operator Amprion, runs alongside it, with both coming online in 2027.¹⁹ The largest single project award in NKT’s history is Eastern Green Link 3, the 525 kV Scotland to England interconnector signed in March 2026 at over EUR 2.2 billion.²⁰

Among Prysmian, Nexans and NKT, it is NKT that has no large building-wire or industrial cable business sitting alongside transmission, and its backlog offers multi-year visibility against a named set of European transmission system operators.³ NKT is investing in factory and vessel capacity several years before the associated contracts contribute fully to earnings.¹⁷ It will continue operating with one cable-laying vessel until the NKT Eleonora enters service in 2027, and the company remains smaller and less liquid than Prysmian.¹⁷ Most of the current backlog was won from 2023 onward, though, so as it is delivered it displaces work priced in an earlier and weaker cycle.

Cenergy Holdings (CENER.BR)

HQ 🇧🇪 Belgium · Market cap $5.5B · Yahoo Finance ↗ · Investor Relations ↗

Hellenic Cables order backlog of €2.88 billion as of 31 December 2025, from a cables business contributing roughly 71% of group revenue.²¹

Cenergy Holdings (CENER.BR) is an industrial holding company listed on both Euronext Brussels and the Athens Exchange, formed in 2016 to combine two long-established Viohalco businesses: Hellenic Cables, its power and data cable maker, and Corinth Pipeworks, a steel-pipe manufacturer. It reported FY2025 group revenue of EUR 2.06 billion, with cables the larger engine at roughly 71% of revenue and 69% of EBITDA that year.²¹ The steel-pipe segment is a separate business alongside the cable story, though it is itself shifting toward CO2 transport, hydrogen and offshore energy infrastructure.

Hellenic Cables is an established tier-two supplier of high-voltage and extra-high-voltage land cable and of submarine export and inter-array cable for offshore wind, manufacturing at Corinth and Thiva in Greece with further capacity at Eleonas and in Bucharest. It sits behind Prysmian, Nexans and NKT in scale but wins European grid and offshore wind work consistently. It was the sole inter-array cable supplier across all three phases of Dogger Bank, the world’s largest offshore wind farm,²² and it holds an HVDC framework agreement with the UK’s National Grid, signed alongside the installer Jan De Nul.²³

Cenergy provides listed exposure to the European offshore-wind and grid-interconnection market through shares traded in Brussels and Athens.²¹ Cable is the larger of its two business segments.²¹ In the United States, Hellenic Cables is building an approximately $200 million first-phase land-cable plant at Wagner’s Point in South Baltimore. Construction began in Q2 2025, and operations are scheduled to start around the end of 2027.²⁵⁴⁹ The 38-acre waterfront site could support a later expansion into offshore cable manufacturing.⁴⁹

For major installation work, Hellenic Cables partners with specialist contractors such as Jan De Nul.²³ This reduces its installation-related capital requirements but limits its ability to lead the largest contracts covering both cable supply and installation. Cenergy remains considerably smaller than Prysmian, Nexans and NKT.

Sumitomo Electric (5802.T)

HQ 🇯🇵 Japan · Market cap $44B · Yahoo Finance ↗ · Investor Relations ↗

Contracted for 140 km of HVDC cable on National Grid’s Sea Link project in December 2025²⁶ and a long-term HVDC subsea framework with SSEN Transmission in July 2026.²⁷

Sumitomo Electric Industries is a diversified Japanese industrial group listed in Tokyo, with businesses spanning automotive wiring harnesses, electronics, optical communications and infrastructure. Power cable forms part of its Environment and Energy segment and is one of several businesses within the group. The shares therefore provide diversified industrial exposure alongside the cable business.

Sumitomo Electric is now competing directly for major European HVDC projects. In December 2025, National Grid Electricity Transmission contracted the company to supply and install 140 km of HVDC cable for the Sea Link project between Kent and Suffolk.²⁶ In July 2026, Sumitomo and marine contractor Van Oord signed a long-term framework agreement with SSEN Transmission covering HVDC subsea cable systems in northern Scotland.²⁷ Sumitomo is also building a submarine-cable factory at the Port of Nigg, where it expects to begin 525 kV production for the Shetland 2 link in the second quarter of 2027.²⁷

The Port of Nigg plant will give Sumitomo local manufacturing capacity for its UK and North Sea projects alongside its existing overseas operations.²⁷ High-voltage cable sits within Environment and Energy, one of several segments in the Sumitomo Electric group. The shares therefore provide less concentrated cable exposure than Prysmian or NKT, whose businesses are more closely tied to cable manufacturing and transmission.

LS Corp (006260.KS)

HQ 🇰🇷 South Korea · Market cap $6.6B · Yahoo Finance ↗ · Investor Relations ↗

Holds part of TenneT’s 525 kV HVDC framework²⁸ and is building a roughly KRW 1 trillion (about $700 million) submarine cable plant in Chesapeake, Virginia, with operations scheduled from Q1 2028.²⁹

LS Corp is the Seoul-listed holding company of the LS Group, and it provides indirect exposure to LS Cable & System, the group’s unlisted, majority-owned cable manufacturer. The group is also the parent of the separately listed LS Electric, alongside LPG distribution and industrial materials. Group revenue was KRW 32 trillion (about $23 billion) in FY2025. As with Sumitomo Electric, this is a diversified industrial holding company rather than a cable pure play. LS Cable & System Asia (229640.KS) is a separately listed subsidiary holding the group’s Vietnamese cable operations.³⁰ It began trading in Seoul in September 2016.³⁰ The HVDC and submarine-cable exposure discussed here instead comes through LS Corp’s majority ownership of the unlisted LS Cable & System.⁵⁰

LS Cable & System is nonetheless one of a small number of manufacturers qualified for the highest-voltage subsea work. It has moved 525 kV HVDC cable into mass production,³¹ and it holds part of TenneT’s 525 kV HVDC framework alongside the offshore contractors Jan De Nul and Denys, covering offshore grid connections in Germany and an onshore corridor.²⁸ It is also the only Asian supplier on this page building submarine cable manufacturing in the United States: a plant at Chesapeake, Virginia, through its LS GreenLink subsidiary, begun in April 2025 at a cost of around KRW 1 trillion (about $700 million), with operations scheduled from the first quarter of 2028.²⁹

LS Cable & System’s 525 kV capability and planned Virginia factory position it to compete for US grid and offshore-wind contracts that favour domestic manufacturing.²⁹³¹ It will not be the only supplier with US capacity. Nexans already serves the market from its submarine-cable plant in Charleston, South Carolina.³²

LS Corp remains a diversified holding company spanning electrical equipment, LPG distribution and industrial materials. Its majority ownership of LS Cable & System therefore provides indirect cable exposure, while listed European specialists such as Prysmian, Nexans and NKT provide more concentrated exposure to cable manufacturing.⁵⁰

Taihan Cable (001440.KS)

HQ 🇰🇷 South Korea · Market cap $3.9B · Yahoo Finance ↗ · Investor Relations ↗

Order backlog of KRW 4.06 trillion (about $2.9 billion) at the end of Q2 2026, above KRW 4 trillion for the first time and larger than FY2025 revenue of KRW 3.64 trillion.³³

Taihan Cable & Solution is a Seoul-listed cable manufacturer controlled by the Hoban Group, and cable is its whole business rather than a segment of a conglomerate. Its order backlog reached KRW 4.06 trillion (about $2.9 billion) at the end of Q2 2026, above KRW 4 trillion for the first time and larger than FY2025 revenue of KRW 3.64 trillion (about $2.6 billion),³³ having grown more than four times over from the KRW 945.5 billion it carried at the end of 2020.³⁴

Taihan is expanding into higher-voltage submarine cable and offshore installation. It has developed a 525 kV class HVDC submarine cable for projects including Korea’s West Coast Energy Highway and presented the design at WindEurope 2026.³⁵ Its second submarine-cable plant broke ground in September 2025. The facility is designed for 640 kV class HVDC production, with more than five times the capacity of Taihan’s first plant, and is scheduled to begin operations in 2027.³⁶ It has also built installation capability, which manufacturers of its size usually lack: it operates the PALOS cable-laying vessel and in May 2026 acquired the 10,000-tonne Skandi Connector, a vessel with some 27 projects and roughly 1,300 km of submarine cable installation behind it, giving Taihan both inter-array and export cable installation capacity for offshore wind.³⁷

Taihan’s manufacturing and installation capabilities give it more direct exposure to the HVDC and offshore-wind cable market than the diversified Asian groups covered here. Its vessels allow it to bid for contracts combining cable supply and installation.³⁷ Taihan nevertheless remains much smaller than Prysmian or Sumitomo Electric, has a shorter record at 525 kV, and generally pursues the largest HVDC contracts with consortium partners.³⁵³⁶

Riyadh Cables Group (4142.SR)

HQ 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia · Market cap $4.2B · Yahoo Finance ↗ · Investor Relations ↗

Confirmed order backlog of SAR 5.5 billion (about $1.5 billion), around 143,000 tonnes, as of Q1 2026, with manufacturing capacity utilisation at 94%.³⁸

Riyadh Cables Group is among the largest cable manufacturers in Saudi Arabia, supplying power cable from low-voltage distribution through to extra-high-voltage transmission. Listed on Tadawul, it is a direct beneficiary of the Saudi Vision 2030 infrastructure programme: the domestic market accounted for 73% of FY2025 revenue, with exports across the Gulf, Iraq, Egypt and Central Asia led by the UAE at roughly 21% of group revenue that year.³⁹ FY2025 revenue was SAR 10.67 billion (about $2.8 billion).⁴⁰

Power cable is the entire business, which cannot be said of most companies its size, and it runs close to capacity. A notable feature is the commodity hedging programme: futures and forward contracts on copper, aluminium and lead, accounted for as cash flow hedges, are designed to protect gross profit per tonne from metal price swings.³⁹ That gives the business a degree of margin predictability unusual for a materials-intensive manufacturer, where peers more often pass metal costs through contract by contract. Beyond the Gulf, it took a 51% stake in Uzbekistan’s Artikul Aziya Kabel effective November 2025 and signed an 18-year staged agreement in January 2026 to rehabilitate and operate Syrian Modern Cables Company.³⁹

Cable is Riyadh Cables’ core business, and Saudi Arabia accounted for 73% of FY2025 revenue.³⁹ The company has begun expanding outside its established Gulf markets through investments in Uzbekistan and Syria, although these operations remain at an early stage.³⁹ Receivables are another consideration. The credit-loss provision more than doubled in FY2025 to SAR 263 million, or about $70 million, while overdue balances also increased.³⁹ The Tadawul listing may also be less accessible to some international investors than the European and Indian listings covered here.

KEI Industries (KEI.NS)

HQ 🇮🇳 India · Market cap $5.8B · Yahoo Finance ↗ · Investor Relations ↗

FY2026 revenue of ₹117.5 billion (about $1.3 billion), up 20.7% year on year, from a cables and wires business that contributes the large majority of group sales.⁴¹

KEI Industries is one of India’s leading wires and cables manufacturers, producing extra-high-voltage cable rated up to 400 kV alongside high-tension and low-tension power cable, control and instrumentation cable, and special-purpose cable.⁴² Group revenue reached ₹117.5 billion (about $1.3 billion) in FY2026, up 20.7% year on year, with cables and wires contributing the large majority and smaller EPC and stainless steel wire businesses making up the balance.⁴¹

KEI qualifies for this list through its extra-high-voltage cable business, the part of its portfolio most directly tied to transmission investment.⁴² Recent growth has been supported by Indian power-distribution and grid-upgrade programmes, infrastructure projects and data-centre cabling.⁴³ To take on more of that demand, KEI opened the first phase of its Sanand plant in Gujarat in December 2025, making low- and high-tension cable, with extra-high-voltage output from the site to follow.⁴³

KEI’s revenue is roughly two-fifths of Polycab’s, making it the smaller of the two Indian manufacturers covered here.⁴¹⁴⁵ It is also more concentrated in institutional and project-led demand, with a relatively small consumer business. This increases its exposure to Indian grid and transmission spending while providing less diversification when project activity slows. International sales remain a small share of revenue.⁴¹

Polycab India (POLYCAB.NS)

HQ 🇮🇳 India · Market cap $15B · Yahoo Finance ↗ · Investor Relations ↗

FY2026 revenue of ₹289 billion (about $3.2 billion), up 29% year on year, with around 30% of India’s organised wires and cables market.⁴⁴

Polycab India is the largest integrated wires and cables manufacturer in India, holding roughly 30% of the organised domestic market in FY2026.⁴⁴ Its range runs from building wire and low- and medium-voltage power cable through extra-high-voltage, solar, EV charging and optical-fibre cable, alongside a consumer-facing fast-moving electrical goods segment covering solar inverters, fans, lighting and switches. Group revenue reached ₹289 billion (about $3.2 billion) in FY2026, up 29% year on year, with wires and cables growing faster than the group and the consumer segment growing more slowly.⁴⁵

India’s grid expansion, renewable capacity build-out, EV charging rollout and the government’s RDSS power distribution upgrade programme all pull demand across Polycab’s cable range at once. Project Spring, the company’s five-year strategic roadmap running through FY2029-30, commits capital spending of ₹60 to 80 billion funded from internal accruals, aimed at growing wires and cables at 1.5 to 2 times the industry rate.⁴⁴ Polycab carries net cash and minimal debt, which is what allows a capital programme of that size to be self-funded.

Polycab is the largest incumbent in the Indian cable market at a point when that market is expanding, and its scale, backward integration and brand position make it a primary beneficiary of India’s electrification cycle. That it funds its own growth from internal accruals is unusual in this list. Margins are exposed to copper, though: its price movements reach customers with a lag rather than immediately, so sharp metal moves compress margin temporarily regardless of demand. And almost all of it is Indian demand: international sales were about 5% of FY2026 revenue, with a distribution model in the United States still being rebuilt.⁴⁵

ZTT (600522.SS)

HQ 🇨🇳 China · Market cap $17B · Yahoo Finance ↗ · Investor Relations ↗

Jiangsu Zhongtian Technology, which trades as ZTT, is a Shanghai-listed Chinese manufacturer whose businesses span power cable, submarine cable, optical fibre and new energy products.⁴⁶ Its submarine cable arm supplies export and inter-array cable for offshore wind, anchored in China’s domestic build-out.⁴⁷ That home market is the point: the IEA notes that China’s cable manufacturers primarily serve domestic demand, keeping supply adequate for the country’s renewable energy projects while limited capacity and surging demand cause bottlenecks in Europe and the United States.⁴

Submarine cable is one segment of a diversified group. For international investors, the A-share listing may be difficult to access, while limited English-language disclosure makes it harder to assess ZTT’s order book and technological position independently. Domestic-content and supply-chain-security rules may also restrict its access to some Western projects.

Hengtong (600487.SS)

HQ 🇨🇳 China · Market cap $22B · Yahoo Finance ↗ · Investor Relations ↗

Hengtong Optic-Electric is a Shanghai-listed Chinese group spanning optical fibre and cable, power cable, submarine communications and marine energy infrastructure.⁴⁸ Its marine division manufactures submarine power and communications cable and, per the company’s own disclosures, undertakes offshore installation work.

Hengtong reports submarine power cable together with optical-fibre and communications revenue in its marine division, so growth in that division does not necessarily represent greater grid exposure. As with ZTT, the A-share listing may be difficult for some international investors to access, while limited English-language disclosure makes independent assessment harder. Domestic-content requirements may also restrict Hengtong’s participation in some Western grid projects. The European and Korean companies covered here provide more concentrated listed exposure to offshore power cable.

Risks

Offshore wind installation timelines are highly sensitive to cable supply constraints. A single delayed cable vessel or late submarine cable delivery can push a project commissioning date out by a year or more, creating revenue and contract risk for developers and, indirectly, reputational risk for cable suppliers named in force-majeure disputes.

Raw material price volatility is structural to the sector. Copper and aluminium are the dominant input costs in power cable manufacturing, and a sustained move higher in copper prices compresses margins unless contracts include metal price pass-through clauses, which vary widely by customer and region. The IEA estimates that copper accounts for around 10-15% of power-cable prices.⁴⁹ With copper prices in May 2026 about 66% above their 2023 average, that implies an increase of roughly 7-10% in cable costs, all else equal.

Execution risk on large submarine projects is concentrated. The most technically demanding HVDC projects, long-distance submarine interconnectors, are built to bespoke specifications and require specialised installation vessels. Cost overruns and schedule slippage on individual contracts can have a disproportionate impact on annual profits, particularly for smaller operators.

Scale and access vary widely across this list. Several names here are tied to single domestic infrastructure cycles and can be harder for international investors to access on their home exchanges: Riyadh Cables, KEI Industries and Polycab India, and more acutely the A-share listed ZTT and Hengtong, where English-language disclosure is limited and Western procurement restrictions can cap the addressable market. Among the European names, challengers without their own installation fleets, such as Hellenic Cables, depend on third-party vessel operators and can be crowded out of the largest turnkey HVDC awards by the bigger, vertically integrated players.

Capacity expansion carries financing risk. Prysmian, Nexans, NKT and Hellenic Cables are each investing in new submarine cable factories or vessel capacity, in programmes running over several years. Cost inflation, permitting delays, or a demand slowdown before new capacity comes online could pressure returns on invested capital.

Conclusion

The 12 companies profiled here span the global power cable market, from the Milan-listed market leader to India-focused manufacturers serving domestic infrastructure investment. They are exposed to the extension and reinforcement of electricity systems built largely in the mid-20th century. The IEA estimates that more than 80 million km of grids must be added or refurbished by 2040 to meet countries’ national energy and climate goals, roughly equivalent to the existing global grid.¹

Limited HVDC submarine-cable capacity has strengthened manufacturers’ pricing and order visibility. Prysmian, Nexans, NKT and Hellenic Cables each carry multi-year order books, although their scale and installation capabilities differ. Sumitomo Electric, LS Cable & System through LS Corp, and Taihan are competing for major HVDC projects, while ZTT and Hengtong primarily serve the Chinese market. Riyadh Cables, KEI Industries and Polycab India are more closely tied to domestic transmission and electrification investment in Saudi Arabia and India. Investors tracking the demand side of the same build-out may prefer our wind stocks list, which covers the turbine makers and offshore developers these cables connect.

Future updates should focus on new HVDC awards, copper prices and contract pass-through terms, and the commissioning of new factories and cable-laying vessels. Together, these developments will affect revenue visibility, near-term margins and the duration of the current capacity shortage.