METAL MARKETS Sluggish growth forecast for wire, cable industry

Sluggish growth is forecast this year for the American insulated wire and cable industry by Business Trend Analysts, Inc., a business research and publishing firm.

In a report titled The U.S. Insulated Wire and Cable Industry, the company says 1987 is not expected to improve much on 1986’s lacklustre performance, a year in which industry sales were in the $7.8-billion range, up 3.2% from the previous year.

Contributing to sluggish growth has been depressed prices for industry products, says the report. Price cuts by manufacturers, because of increased f oreign and domestic competition, have made for slimmer profits.

Also contributing to weak demand has been an increasing number of imported wire and cable products. While imports accounted for about 4% of U.S. apparent consumption of insulated wire and cable in 1978, by 1986 that figure had topped 16%. American manufacturers, in an attempt to limit damage from imports, have in many cases formed joint ventures with foreign operations.

Perhaps the most significant threat to insulated wire and cable manufacturers has been the continued acceptance of fibreoptics in applications which traditionally have incorporated copper wire and cable products.

Fibreoptic technology has had its greatest impact on sales of telephone wire and cable. Telephone and telegraph wire and cable products, which as recently as 1977 accounted for 30% of total insulation wire and cable sales, currently represent only 18% of industry sales. Contained in the report is a section on the fibreoptics industry.