Another materials supplier raises prices for cable manufacturers

Today Dow Wire and Cable announced price increases on several cable-manufacturing compounds. The increases will take effect October 1 and affect Dow's customers in North and South America.

Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE) based specialty compounds, including flame-retardant and low-smoke/zero-halogen products will increase by 19 cents per pound.

LDPE jacketing and elastomeric insulation grades will increase by 12 cents per pound.

Select general-purpose grades will increase by 7 cents per pound.

Dow has made available to its customers this complete list of products within those three grades.

I have an inquiry into Dow asking what these cent-per-pound figures equate to for percentage-increases. Once I have that info I'll post it here as well.

As we reported, the three major suppliers of fluorinated ethylene propylene - FEP - have raised prices to cable makers and have either limited or allocated the supply of FEP they're providing. One of the three is leaving the FEP market next year. Everyone I've spoken to has been quick to point out that there is not an FEP shortage and that they are still able to produce cable in enough quantity to meet demand.

The FEP situation coupled with the increasing price of copper make cable price increases a near certainty.

In a previous blog post I rationalized why the FEP supply situation, like seemingly everything else in the world, ties back to China's production, consumption and export policies.