Custom wire and cable: Reducing your cost.

With custom cable it is not uncommon to hear “Copper prices just dropped, why didn’t my cable price go down?” Copper prices are a major factor affecting custom wire and cable prices but not the sole factor. Custom cable is normally made to order and many times in smaller quantities which is affected by the prices of materials at the time of ordering. “Off the shelf” commodity wire is usually made continuously and in large volumes which absorb day to day cost fluctuations of copper/metals, compounds and labor/set up keeping the price more stable.

Here are just a few factors which affect the prices of custom wire and cable products

Petroleum prices- Which can range from transport and freight costs to the actual compounds which are made from petroleum products.beside copper:

• Material shortages- An example is the fluoropolymer (FEP), earlier this year due to the earthquake in Japan affected production for Daikin and DuPont which are the only manufacturers of fluoropolymers in the world today. In addition with China cutting back on their fluorospar exports which happened at the same time resulted in an increase of 20-30% for the compounds.


• Material minimums- Custom cable designs sometimes use conductors and compounds which are not commonly used and are subject to minimum buys which are factored into the per foot price of the cable.
• Set up- Setting up equipment takes time and material, the higher the volume the less the set up costs affect final price.

There are ways to help keep your cost down, for example:

• Plan ahead – Placing blanket orders, scheduling orders over multiple shipments over time. Buying higher volumes helps absorb minimums by amortizing material, set up and labor costs. Sometimes the overall cost for ordering 1000 feet is less than ordering 200- 500 feet. Ask for price breaks to evaluate your options.

• Request samples – Custom wire is usually specialized to the design however you can check to see if your manufacture has a similar item they can sample you. This is helpful when you need prototype of proof of concept quantities. Many custom cable manufacturers have sample stock and overruns available which may be similar to what you need.

• Wait for it- If you time to wait, ask your cable manufacture if they have any upcoming jobs using the same material. Running your order along with another may save you on set up costs and/or minimums. It's a long shot, but can be done if your material is a more common one.

• Substitutions- Ask what is driving the price. If a material minimum is involved, find out if there is a substitute material which may be readily available you can use. Sometimes just changing the plating or strand count can make the difference.