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raw copper price vs. cable price

Hello everyone,

Is just me or you are also seeing cable quotes from distributors that are made valid for silly short periods of time like one to two weeks? This time it's not blamed on price of Teflon but rather copper. It's kinda funny but prices on copper futures are actually DOWN right now for the whole of 2006: (

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) yet the cable pricing is out of hand already, just in time for the summer construction season.

Does anyone have copper content figures for, say, generic CAT5E UTP cable? I don't think there is more than 30% content in an insulated cable like ours, so my guess is that rise of copper prices (if any) should actually be dampened by the fact that there isn't too much of it in this kind of cable.

So, how do you guys deal with this kind of volatility on one of your major price components? It's pretty dangerous to submit a quote and sit on it for months now, which is exactly what customers have become accustomed to during last couple years of stable pricing.

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Reply to
Dmitri(Cabling-Design.com
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Dmitri(Cabling-Design.com) wrote in part:

Cable mfrs probably are locked into higher pricing.

My Wire Table says 1000ft of AWG#24 is 1.223 lb. So at least

10 lb / 1000ft 4pr. Plus some factor for the extra length from twisting. Say $40/kft raw copper at current pricing. Cat6 will be more, since it's usually closer to AWG#23.

Two ways: either as adjustors or as exclusions (owner supplies).

-- Robert

Reply to
Robert Redelmeier

Have you considered the China effect. I just saw were 75% of the construction cranes that are in use world wide are in China just now. Those buildings will need electrical and data cables. They may be buying up huge chunks of supply at a time. Thus running the price up and down.

Reply to
DLR

You are correct - they are a huge factor, indeed. But don't they mine their own copper? I?m not sure they mine enough but I believe they are already one of the largest producers. #4 according to this source:

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( bit outdated ), right after US, Peru and Japan.

It does seem like the raw material price increase is very well timed to get the manufacturers out of the price slashing downward spiral that started with the last recession and seemed like it will never end. OTOH we had labor price increases every year (sometimes twice), courtesy IBEW. So, the material prices seemed like less and less significant part of the job cost. I guess, this has to change.

Reply to
Dmitri(Cabling-Design.com

But they might be using it in such quantities that they buy up huge blocks when they are short and a 30 story building needs to be wired. If you have a 5000 unit apartment building being held up for cable, flying it from the US 1st class might be cheaper than a weeks wait.

Reply to
DLR

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