Nexans SA, the world's biggest maker of cables and wires, opened its third wholly-owned production base in China Thursday to tap the country's growing needs for telecom and electric wires amid its infrastructure construction.

The plant, in Nanning of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, will be the second-largest production base for communication cables in southern China that will also host a logistics center, company officials said.

Nexans acquired the Nanning Huasun Cable Company and turned it into its wholly-owned subsidiary, Nexans (Nanning) Communications Co. The plant, covering an area of 25,000 square meters, produces telecom copper cables used in switching, transmission for fixed and mobile networks for both indoor and outdoor applications.

"Nexans is going to strength its position in China, especially with industrial specialty cables such as marine cables, nuclear power plant cables and railway signaling cables," said Douglas Anderson, Nexans Great China general manager.

Nexans just received an order worth about 35 million euros (46.52 million U.S. dollars) from Shanghai Power Equipment & Materials Co, which manages wire purchases for the municipal grid operator. The operator has budgeted 20 billion yuan (2.5 billion dollars) in grid construction and upgrades this year to improve safety.

Nexans will manufacture and install a 17-kilometer high-voltage underground power cable circuit to link Shibo and Sanlin substations, which constitute part of the city's major power transmission artery.

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