Competition record
Prysmian
Deep profile · 1 linked library matter
Prysmian is a major maker of high-voltage underground and submarine power cable. The European Commission fined Prysmian for allocating those projects with Nexans and NKT.
Overview
Prysmian is the cable group, historically tied to the old Pirelli cable business, that bids for high-voltage links. A project is not a spool of wire. It is a contract to design, supply, and often install an underground or submarine line for a grid operator or a developer connecting generation to the shore.
The Commission found Prysmian allocated those projects with Nexans and NKT. When three groups that can actually perform the work decide the winner in advance, the tender documents still look like a competition. The prices are staged. Prysmian, as a major bidder on exactly these jobs, is central to that kind of allocation.
The library status is fined. No euro figure is included, because the notes for this profile do not fix one. The cost is a grid asset, depreciated over decades and recovered from electricity customers.
Competition footprint
Turnkey high-voltage projects are the allocated work, both underground and at sea.
Prysmian, Nexans, and NKT are the makers named in this cartel.
A single awarded link can be large enough that losing it, or being handed it, is the year's competitive outcome.
Consumer & business angle
Transmission companies and project developers were the buyers who took the coordinated bids.
Household electricity bills absorb network investment slowly, which hides a rigged tender inside a regulated charge.
What to watch
- Utility damages claims that use the power-cables decision against Prysmian.
- Bidder lists on new subsea links, and whether procurement rules require a genuine second offer.
Markets
high-voltage power cable · submarine and underground cable projects · power cables · grid infrastructure · offshore wind
Also known as: prysmian group, prysmian cables