Copper is very difficult to deal with in the wire and cable field. I work for a wire and cable distributor and we have to keep a close eye on copper pricing every day. Since copper is a commodity it's very volatile and could change the price of a cable significantly. Since the beginning of the year copper has risen from 1.66/lb to 2.55/lb. This can be seen online and you'll see that copper actually went up as high as 4.20/lb in May of last year. A standard item in the field is a 4/0 Welding Cable which has about 0.60 lbs of copper per foot! When copper is at 2.195/lb and it changes by .10/lb the 4/0 Welding cable changes 5% in price! This is a normal daily routine in the wire and cable field. When you're only making roughly 10% per order it's very difficult to keep on top of pricing to your customers.
Some of the cables sold aren't as effected by copper because of the insulation on each conductor, the fillers and the over all rubber jacket. Since there's a lot more involved in the making of the cables there's more room to work on the pricing. Welding cable, Solid Bare Copper, electrical wire, THHN, and USE-2 are the most difficult because you only have the bare copper stranding and the insulation. So if copper goes up 5%, like I said above, the price of the cable goes up 5% with it. It's tough for a lot of people to understand and the reason I understand it so well is because I deal with it everyday.
Inventory is also an issue in the copper wire and cable industry because if copper goes down 10% in a week (very likely) then everything in your inventory is worth 10% less. This happened last year when copper hit 4.20/lb in May 2008 it started to drop rapidly down to 3.16/lb in 3 months and it went under 2.00/lb from there. Now copper is back up again and it's comfortably at 2.195/lb as of today.
It's very difficult to keep track of if you're not in the industry so I put the Copper updates on our website so that you can see the copper history whenever needed. Please email us with any questions you might have about copper, wire or cable and we'll do our best to answer them for you!
About the Author:
WesBell Electronics Inc has the information to save you money! We see UF-B, Romex, THHN, SER and every other type of Electrical Wire. We buy straight from the manufacturers to make sure we are always able to offer the best price available. We also offer free shipping on orders over $250.00 so call us with any questions!
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Current Copper pricing and the effect it has in the Wire and Cable Industry
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