In 2023, the cable group NKT more than doubled its order book, which at the end of the year amounted to EUR 10.8bn.

The order development in the past year has been better than NKT had hoped for, and this was in a market where the order awards were unprecedented.

This is according to the company’s CEO, Claes Westerlind, in an interview with MarketWire.

”In high-voltage cables, EUR 15bn in firm orders were awarded in 2023, but in addition, more than EUR 15bn in committed capacity reservations were agreed. This brings the total market to an unprecedented EUR 30 bn,” says Westerlind.

Higher market share than expected

Of the EUR 15bn in firm orders, NKT snapped up EUR 7bn.

”We didn’t get what we expected, we got more. A 45% market share is, in our opinion, a huge success - so a big recognition to the employees for securing the orders.”

”The large order book gives NKT a strong starting point for the years to come in terms of earnings visibility, and it underlines our competitiveness when facing the main competitors around Europe and the world,” says Westerlind.

After the record-high level of awards in 2023, NKT expects its average addressable high-voltage market to be over EUR 10bn per year between 2024 and 2030.

But market volumes can easily fluctuate both up and down in an individual year, depending on the timing of when the big deals are signed.

”If such a deal changes between December and January, it makes no difference to a company like NKT or to competitors, but it makes a big difference to the market volume for a single year.”

”So we can easily see a market exceeding EUR 10bn for this year because the market activity is high, but there is also the possibility that it could be lower in the coming years,” says Westerlind.

Striving for the right orders

But the CEO does not expect NKT to continue to take 45% of the orders in the future.

”Our goal is a market share of somewhere between 20 and 30%, and hopefully 25-30%. But I also want to emphasize that market share is more vanity than value as such. We strive for the right orders with the right balance between risk and reward - and to create a profitable order book for NKT.”

”With a record-breaking order book, we can also afford to lose projects. It’s a good position to be in,” says Westerlind.

However, he is reluctant to elaborate on which contracts NKT will be chasing in the coming period.

”For competitive reasons, I would be a little cautious about revealing what we are aiming for, but the factory expansions we have made and are making are primarily within HVDC cables (high-voltage cables based on DC technology, ed.) - this is also the primary market we see going forward,” explains Westerlind.

Can take on more

The other question is how much additional capacity NKT actually has in terms of new orders.

”This is also a thorny issue for competitive reasons, but it goes without saying that with a record-high order book, we also have a record-high earnings visibility and thus limited capacity.”

”We have also already reserved some of the capacity we are establishing in Karlskrona, but we do not have full capacity coverage in the years up to 2030. In the near period for this year and for 2025, we have good earnings visibility and utilization of the factories, but if we can offer more land cables or smaller submarine cable projects - yes, we can, but there are not huge amounts of capacity available in the short term,” says Westerlind.

(Translated using DeepL with additional editing by Catherine Brett)