Cable prices increasing rapidly

[THE PLUG ELECTRICIAN]

Hello Everyone

Are we all facing the same problem of price hiking up of electrical cable? In this month alone start of 2021 the price has been changed twice. The first time wasn’t so bad it was by £2.00 the second time it was changed by a odd £6.00...

Any info on this?

Are prices likely to creep up even more? For the people who have been in the trade for over 20 years any experience with price hikes like we are now experiencing?

Is it due to COVID or Brexit ?

Will prices ever go back to “NORMAL” or is this the new normal

Would love to hear from you all and any tips of where and how to source cable in a matter of emergency’s.

 

[Edtwozeronine]

Hopefully once all the transport is in place after the brexit transition and covid gets sorted out it'll drop back into line. Market forces are always, oh there's less of this stuff about we'll have to sell it for more because we can get away with it!

 

[snowhead]

It's the price of raw copper that's caused it, nothing to do with Brexit.
Almost doubled since last March

 

[ipf]

Well, very little of the world's copper is mined in Europe, ruling out Brexit.
USA and some South American countries have massive supplies.
We had a 'high' about 10 years ago....it is getting towards that again. Who knows the reasons for the markets?.......but some will be making millions.

CHECK ON SCRAP PRICES, EVERYONE!!!!
(or just ask tel, he'll know)?

 

[THE PLUG ELECTRICIAN]

It's the price of raw copper that's caused it, nothing to do with Brexit.
Almost doubled since last March

View attachment 63768

So technically the price change can and will move freely looking at the graph it looks like at one stage it did drop dramatically so it can drop back down which is a good thing but how likely is this... raw material is starting to get expensive hence price rise makes sense thanks for the graph

 

[Mike Johnson]

As with all of these things if a price rise happens due to exceptional circumstances and its absorbed by the customer when those circumstances change the price stays the same, living in cuckoo land if you think the price will come down IMO.

 

[snowhead]

Price is rising due to demand.
Either there are more companies buying and using it or the producers can't keep up with the demand.
Covid may be a reason.
Here's the last 5 years, it doesn't look quite as bad compared to where it was previously.

 

[Sparky Pat]

Back in far forgotten past and when BICC used to set the trade prices on cables ,and when you had one cable discount off all booklet cables he would receive a new price list [booklet] every week or sometimes twice in a week.
I know the manager of my local wholesaler was told to stock up on cable a few months ago because prices were going up.
So nothing new in rapid cable increases as stated previously it depends on the cost of the raw material, back in the seventies it was down more to the price of oil.

 

[brianmoooore]

And back in the seventies, you could show that booklet to the customer, and they could see how generous you were selling them the cable at 'trade'price'.

 

[Dustydazzler]

As with all of these things if a price rise happens due to exceptional circumstances and its absorbed by the customer when those circumstances change the price stays the same, living in cuckoo land if you think the price will come down IMO.

This

Prides will continue to rise all the time people pay it ...

 

[THE PLUG ELECTRICIAN]

Hello Everyone

Are we all facing the same problem of price hiking up of electrical cable? In this month alone start of 2021 the price has been changed twice. The first time wasn’t so bad it was by £2.00 the second time it was changed by a odd £6.00...

Any info on this?

Are prices likely to creep up even more? For the people who have been in the trade for over 20 years any experience with price hikes like we are now experiencing?

Is it due to COVID or Brexit ?

Will prices ever go back to “NORMAL” or is this the new normal

Would love to hear from you all and any tips of where and how to source cable in a matter of emergency’s.

Upon further research it looks like prices will carry on going up because the demand has rocketed... so this year and the upcoming year will be hard but I believe it will get worser towards 2025 as the EU want to make car batteries and car charging points etc the mines were copper comes from are not up to standard to supply that much copper = increased prices

The demand is high in China at the moment as they are also doing the same as the EU right now so we can imagine having the EU doing what China is doing so I see more problems coming in the future...

The prices may remain high through out the year so it’s up to you how and when you purchase your cables but expect minor issues with pricing jobs... one day you’d walk in and it could be something and then next it’s gone up... it’s happened to me so I have put it out there

Prices can drop as proven by the chart but that’s when suppliers have too much stock available and only lasts short periods of time... but the price averages at the new “high” and does not drop by that much

I have also spoken to the manufacturers they said it’s due to the Raw Material price and they can’t make further comment on price changes
local wholesalers don’t make that much from cable as it is looking at the one I use only makes £3.00-£6.00 a roll after sale so it had me wondering whats going on pandemic isn’t playing a part in the price increase and Brexit is playing a minor part in the price increase due to port issues and slow down of delivery’s. Local wholesalers are experiencing a months wait on small quantity orders proven as I have rang a few and they all seem to say the same thing...

 

[Dustydazzler]

what are people paying for mable these days

last roll of 2.5 T&e I forked out £50 on

 

[loz2754]

what are people paying for mable these days

last roll of 2.5 T&e I forked out £50 on

About the same in Coventry

 

[Mike Johnson]

what are people paying for mable these days

last roll of 2.5 T&e I forked out £50 on

I assume that was for 50M, but then Mable is a nice girl.

 

[mattg4321]

Not as bad as the period between 2004 and about 2007/8. I seem to remember we paid about £19 for 2.5 t and e at the start of that period and about £45-£50 at the peak.

 

[electric al]

I seem to remember the price rocketed around the millennium ( almost doubling )and the reason being was the demand from china and india as developing economies

 

[Timbo]

£52.80 @ Screwfix

 

[littlespark]

I just got same from screwfix yesterday. £52.80.
Price is for 100m of same brand CEF stock but in a lovely pink box.

(CEF is £59.95 inc VAT)

 

[kropaske]

Wickes have it for £52.50 and with trade discount comes to £47.25

 

[telectrix]

what are people paying for mable these days

last roll of 2.5 T&e I forked out £50 on

as that mable mabel on the chart room table?

 

[Dustydazzler]

I assume that was for 50M, but then Mable is a nice girl.

Toolstation special

 

[Dustydazzler]

Not as bad as the period between 2004 and about 2007/8. I seem to remember we paid about £19 for 2.5 t and e at the start of that period and about £45-£50 at the peak.

i Remember that time , I went self deployed around 02/03 and got 100m 2.5 T&e from my then local Edmundsons for around £18+vat , by the end of that decade it was about £45+vat. so £50-55 ish per drum today it hasn’t really gone up that much in the last 10 years...
land if you get it on special from wickes toolstation etc it’s around the same price as 2010

 

[Dustydazzler]

If anything it’s Labour that has rocketed the last 5-10 years , day rate 2010 about £150-180 , 2020 £250-450.
at this rate by 2025 rates will be £750 per day ...

 

[richy3333]

We got the nod in early December from our wholesalers that cable amongst other things were increasing in january. We bought stacks of cable to beat the price rise. Wholesaler also offered to keep materials in the warehouse if we ordered in December but had them delivered in January. The list I had was well over 30 manufacturers putting their prices up.

We've been fitting a lot of metal trunking on a job and the price increase on that was 15%

When I asked why, iI was told it was a combination of Brexit, Covid and general uncertainty in the construction market.

Speaking to a wood muncher yesterday and he said wood has gone up in price and Galv metal sheeting has literally gone through the roof (pardon the pun). Has waited 4 months for a delivery to finish a house and it still hasn't arrived.

 

[hasel5]

We are struggling to get SWA and Hituff at the moment awaiting deliveries of both been told will only get 4 drums of 6mm 3 core Hituff instead of 8 same with SWA

 

[Algarve Sparky]

Whilst Brexit has been the cause of many many problems its not why material prices have risen, that is directly from at the time necessary Covid restrictions shutting down the worlds economy ! many manufacturing companies were already on the brink and it tipped them over and never to reopened.

The restart of business has been seen an unprecedented demand for all construction materials which itself has cause shortage and price rises, hopefully in time it will slowly return to a better level.

 

[OnlQQker]

Copper could be on the way out...

The Coming Copper Shortage: Aluminium Or Carbon Nanotubes To The Rescue?

The use of aluminium in wiring is unlikely to bring a smile to the face of anyone who has had to deal with it in a 1960s, or early 1970s-era house. The causes behind the fires and other accidents w…

hackaday.com

 

[Mike Johnson]

We must also take into account the blockage of the Suez canal and the container shortage it cased, lots of ships missed their birthing times in ports and the containers and ships where in the wrong place to pick up return loads it caused major problems for those routes and deliveries world wide.

 

[UNG]

We must also take into account the blockage of the Suez canal and the container shortage it cased, lots of ships missed their birthing times in ports and the containers and ships where in the wrong place to pick up return loads it caused major problems for those routes and deliveries world wide.

The Evergiven running aground and the container shortage are two totally unrelated events. The Evergiven held up around 400+ ships at the southern end of the Suez Canal, the knock on of that is that it messed up all the berthing slots for the next several months and possibly longer also during that period west bound traffic to the US increased on the strength of a covid recovery plan and became more lucrative for the shippers to route ships to the US instead of the far east, for many months it was not unusual to have 50 - 60 ships at anchor waiting to get into New York port to unload and load on the US west coast Los Angeles port had similar backlogs

The container shortage in the far east is down to who pays for the empty containers to be shipped back to the far east from Europe and elsewhere globally

One of my customers works in LCL shipping and described the grounding of the Evergiven as one of his worst nightmares he had a few thousand containers held up on the Evergiven and the other ships caught up in queue behind it add into that General Average was called on the Evergiven's load and added around an extra £26,000 to the shipping cost of every container it was carrying
A recent covid lockdown in China caused delays for some shippers whose warehousing was within the lockdown area so it made it difficult if not impossible to transfer goods to the port

It will take a long time for global shipping to sort itself out after Covid and the Evergiven incident

 

[Mike Johnson]

And none of that had a knock on effect?