Major Quake Damages Construction Electric Wire Supply Chain

Japanese supply of electric wire for construction applications gets very tight when many of the major plants stopped the operations due to damage from the major earthquake in eastern Japan while the insulating and sheathing materials of plastics compounds and plasticizer supply stopped after the quake. Electric wire makers in western Japan can make the wire but they also has limited inventory of insulating and sheathing materials. Shortage of fuel and land transport also limits the wire shipment. The wire makers try to seek alternative sources for insulating and sheathing materials.

The demand increases for 6 kilovolt crosslinked polyethylene insulated vinyl sheath (XLPE) cable and vinyl insulated vinyl sheathed flat type (VVF) cable recently. The demand for XLPE cable increases to rebuild damaged plants including Fukushima nuclear power plant while the higher demand for VVF cable is apparently inventory building attempt.

Sumiden Hitachi Cable, which is construction application cable making joint venture between Hitachi Cable, Sumitomo Electric Industries and Tatsuta Electric Wire & Cable, was impacted the major quake. The joint venture’s supply ability for high voltage XLPE cable decreased to 20-30% of the normal level when the consignment production partner of plant in Ibaraki of Hitachi Cable stropped operation. The joint venture asked Tatsuta Electric Wire & Cable to increase the supply. Tatsuta Electric Wire & Cable will support the production as much as possible.

VISCAS Corporation’s Ichihara plant in Chiba stopped the high voltage XLPE cable making operation. The firm supplies the products to Fujikura Dia Cable, which is construction cable sales joint venture between Fujikura and Mitsubishi Cable Industries, and Furukawa Elecom, which is construction cable sales company of Furukawa Electric group.

The insulating and sheathing materials supply stopped when plastics compounds and plasticizer makers stopped operation due to damage by the quake. The wire makers try to keep the operation with the materials at hand but they couldn’t keep the operation when the insulating and sheathing materials supply wouldn’t resume immediately. The wire makers try to source the insulating and sheathing materials from offshore makers. However, they could take one month or more to use new material due to the needed test.

The cable supply is also impacted by damaged logistics network when their sales deposit and distribution centers were damaged by the quake. The wire makers try to rebuild the network in days or a week of timeframe. However, limited availability of fuel and truck is another hurdle to the distribution.