Copper prices skyrocket, cable costs skyrocket
As the core raw material for cable production, copper accounts for 60% -80% of the production cost, with a surge from $10000/ton at the beginning of the year to $14285/ton today, an increase of over 40% in just one year. This also means that for every batch of cables purchased, the cost will increase significantly. So the question is: how much more does it cost to buy cables now that copper prices have risen like this?

Firstly, the conclusion is that for every $150 increase in copper prices, cable costs will increase by approximately 1% to 1.5%. It should be noted that cables of different models, voltage levels, number of cores, and cross-sectional areas have significant differences in copper usage.

For example, taking the commonly used YJV 0.6/1KV 3 * 120+2 * 70 low-voltage power cable as an example, when the copper price is 10000 US dollars/ton, the copper material cost is about 42.85 US dollars/meter, and the factory reference price is 46.7 US dollars/meter; When the copper price was $14285/ton, the cost of copper alone increased by $18.28 (the cost of copper was about $61.14/meter), and the overall cable cost jumped directly to $66.28/meter. The cost of purchasing a 1-kilometer cable has increased by over $18000! For large-scale infrastructure and real estate projects, this is undoubtedly a huge cost pressure.

More importantly, the upward trend of copper prices is still continuing. Industry institutions generally predict that if there is no substantial improvement in mining supply, copper prices will not fall significantly in the short term, and cost pressures will continue until the first half of 2026. This has also led to the current cable companies' quotation validity period being generally shortened to 24-48 hours, and buyers may face price increases if they hesitate for a moment. Many projects have been forced to delay due to cost overruns.

In the current era of high copper prices, the key is how to buy cables with higher cost-effectiveness. More and more forward-looking purchasers are turning to efficient and transparent digital solutions. They no longer rely on traditional channels of layered subcontracting, but directly connect with high-quality cable factories through various means.