Design and Construction Report staff writer
Prysmian has broken ground on a $1.02-billion expansion of its Claremont campus that will more than double the company’s U.S. optical fibre production capacity and create hundreds of manufacturing jobs. The project will expand the company’s glass preform and fibre manufacturing operations and is expected to create 300 new local jobs.
Construction is expected to take about 20 months, with the expanded facility scheduled to be fully operational in 2030.
Prysmian executives were joined at the groundbreaking by representatives from Molex, the City of Claremont, Catawba County and North Carolina’s rural economic development organization.
“This investment reflects our long-term commitment to domestic manufacturing and to building the capacity needed to support the next generation of digital infrastructure,” said Andrea Pirondini, Prysmian North America CEO.
About $48 million is also available to expand optical cable manufacturing at the Claremont campus. That project is expected to increase production capacity and add 85 jobs over the next two years.
The two projects will bring total planned job creation at the Claremont campus to 385 positions.
The expansion is part of a broader series of investments Prysmian recently announced across North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee to increase domestic production of optical fibre and cable. The projects are expected to create about 600 manufacturing jobs across the three states.
The additional Claremont capacity will also support Prysmian’s long-term agreement with Molex, valued at $6.29 billion, to supply optical cables for digital infrastructure. The agreement is aimed at meeting demand for high-performance connectivity associated with artificial intelligence, cloud computing and other data-intensive applications.
“Prysmian’s investment in additional U.S. manufacturing capacity will strengthen our long-term collaboration and our ability to deliver the advanced optical connectivity solutions our customers need,” said Joe Nelligan, Molex CEO.
Prysmian said the Claremont expansion will strengthen domestic manufacturing capacity for optical fibre, a key component of telecommunications and data infrastructure.
