A High-Voltage Investment
Electrical cable rarely gets top billing. It does, however, get a considerable budget: Okonite plans to invest $400 million in Orangeburg County, where growing demand for high-voltage cable is translating into a bigger manufacturing footprint.
The South Carolina Department of Commerce’s expansion announcement outlines an approximately 552,000-square-foot plant at 2276 Rowesville Road, on property the company already owns. The project is expected to create 105 jobs. Construction is scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of 2026 and take roughly two to three years, making this a development residents will watch unfold over several calendars.
For Orangeburg County, the investment builds on an existing industrial relationship. Okonite already operates two production facilities locally, and its company history records an Orangeburg groundbreaking in 1991. The new plant adds another chapter to a manufacturing presence that stretches back more than three decades.
That history helps explain what is being expanded. Orangeburg already houses both cable manufacturing and a compound plant that produces materials for the company’s insulation system. The manufacturing campus also includes a laboratory for testing how cables perform when exposed to flame. Making cable involves considerably more than winding wire onto a reel.
Okonite has been in business since 1878 and now operates 34 locations nationwide. Its cables serve electric utilities, railroads, oil and gas operations, and the chemical industry. Those customers give the Orangeburg project a reach well beyond the county line, even though the manufacturing work happens at a very specific local address.
The company says growing demand for its high-voltage products is driving the expansion. For residents, that offers a concrete connection between the electrical systems industries rely on and the facilities needed to supply them. Here, demand becomes square footage, equipment and jobs, with a construction schedule attached.
There is public investment involved, too. The state approved job development credits and awarded Orangeburg County a $1.5 million Rural Infrastructure Fund grant to help with site preparation and building construction. Job seekers are directed to the company’s careers page, a useful place to follow opportunities as the project progresses.
The immediate story is a planned factory. The longer one is whether that factory delivers the announced employment and capacity over the coming years. Orangeburg has an established role in making these products; this investment would give that role substantially more room.
Explore more businesses in the Guide to South Carolina manufacturing directory: https://guidetosouthcarolina.com/manufacturing