Nexans, a leader in the cable industry, has supplied over 2,500km of power and control cables for a total value contract of around Euro 2.6 million for the new Terminal 3 at Beijing International Airport. These cables play a vital role in the operation of the state-of-the-art baggage handling system.

The system, installed by Siemens and Inter-Roller, is believed to be one of the world's largest and most modern, with the ability to sort and transport up to 19,200 bags per hour. A total of 330 check-in counters are connected to a 68km, high-speed, tray-conveyor system. Bags are transported through a 2.2km tunnel at a speed of 36km/hour from the check-in counters in Terminal 3A to the loading carousels in International Terminal 3B.

A wide variety of power supply, control, data transmission cables were required to ensure the correct operation of the baggage system, consisting of a combination of high-speed tray conveyors, conveyor belts and tilt-tray sorters, all controlled by a material flow computer. The copper cables were manufactured at Nexans plants in Germany, and the optical cables were manufactured by the Nexans Opticable factory in Belgium.

Terminal 3, which opened fully in March 2008, has more than doubled Beijing Airport's capacity from 30 to 66.5 million passengers per year.