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The Wire show organized at Dusseldorf, Germany
in April 2004 illustrated that the wire and cable industry is not
yet dead but has good growth potential. This growth can mainly be
attributed to the increasing demands of infrastructure development
in East European and the old Russian countries. Asia also has good
growth potential due to the similar reasons. The markets in West
Europe and North America have become quite matured and are also
under tremendous pressures of higher fixed cost. These costs have
made it necessary for North American suppliers to move manufacturing
base to Mexico and Central America, while the West European suppliers
are shifting to the Eastern European countries. PVC still continues
to be the major material, but Polyolefins are gradually snatching
the market share from PVC. Fire hazards and other environmental
issues are the two major driving forces of the shift from PVC to
Polyolefins.
World demand indicates 2/3rd share in wire and cable industry
for PVC, expected to grow only at a modest rate of 1%. PP is expected
to grow at 5% and the Polyethylenes at about 4 %. The shift from
PVC to Polyolefins is more prevalent in North America and Western
Europe, taking the share of polyethylenes to almost 75% of PVC.
The overall demand for wire and cables would grow at about 2%, compared
to the overall growth of GDP at 3-3.5%. Power sector will continue
to consume major volumes. Telecom and IT have become commodity items.
Some of the newer developments still continue to be in the areas
of faster extrusion speeds (as high as 2500meters/minute) for telecom
cables, PE low-tension cables with fire resistant characteristics.
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