Industrial Electric Cable Price Decreases

The market price of industrial electric cable is sharply decreasing in Japan after Japanese official copper ingot price was widely revised down on January 4, which is the indicator for electric cable prices. The wholesalers began to adopt reselling prices based on 750,000 yen per tonne of copper price for spot dealing last week from 830,000 yen based prices used since late December.The price seems declining to around 1,120-1,140 yen per meter of cut length for 3-core 600 volt CVT (triplex type of cross-linked polyethylene insulated and vinyl sheathed cable) with 38 square millimeters of copper cross section, decreasing by 80-90 yen from late December. The market price is also likely to decrease by 1-2 yen per meter for 2-core 600V VVF (vinyl insulated vinyl sheathed flat-type cable) with 1.6 mm diameter.The wholesalers still hold much inventory whose cost price was based on more than 800,000 yen per tonne of copper price. Some wholesalers tried to set the reselling prices unchanged within last week, while some adopted 750,000 yen based reselling prices. They could define the copper base for their reselling prices watching the fluctuation of Japanese official copper price this week.Cable makers and wholesalers aim to keep sales margin at the current level or improve more toward the end of March 2007. However, the market price would continue declining as total when the price decreases widely to reflect the down of copper price.