• Home
• About Us
• Latest News
• Latest Products
• Contact Us
• Special Offers

The answer is an emphatic ‘no’.

If you take Category 5 structured wiring cable for example, there are very few manufacturers left in Europe willing to make it. This is in part due to prices dropping so low two years ago that several manufacturers simply diverted production capacity to more profitable lines or closed factories altogether. Certainly, some big names still sell their branded product but much of this is of Far Eastern origin that has been badged.

Recently, prices have roughly doubled (partly down to copper) and the profit has come back, this time for the Chinese. Sadly, many of the European producers are unable to gear back up to making these products leaving the market vulnerable.

The range of products coming from the Far East is increasing but mainly concentrates on cables with a high labour content either in production or reeling. Certainly the quality offered by the best factories is excellent, with consistency, packing and reliable deliveries all adding to the service.

The worry centres on an increasing dependency. The rapid price rises last year brought about by the soaring copper market found prices going up by as much as double the amount needed to cover the copper rise. Profiteering, or the realisation that the West had little option but to accept these price increases meant that any resistance was met in many cases with a ‘take it or leave it attitude’.

It is vital we keep production capacity in Europe even if we can’t keep it in the UK. At the moment, power cables appear to be safe, due to their bulk and high transport cost with relatively little, other than a few small booklet armoured cables, coming in from China. India has been waiting in the wings for 15 or 20 years now but as yet quality issues have held them back. Don’t count on that lasting much longer however, as they have a well educated workforce who will soon want a slice of the European market for themselves.

But it is also the manufacturers responsibility to look beyond price and meet the needs of the customer in both service and product quality. We don’t want to see import restrictions on cables like the bra wars of 2006.

Some of the downturn early in the year was due to reasons ranging from the slowdown in housing developments to the Chinese New Year.

China's consumption in March 2007 has increased by more than 60% to around 310,000 tons compared with March 2006. The LME stock of copper was the lowest since December 2006. All this is likely to push prices even higher in the short term.The rise is partially due to speculators rather than increased demand, although this still has the same impact on pushing prices even higher.

Our advice is, if you can predict your requirements you may be able to agree a fixed price for a bulk quantity and then call it off over a predetermined period. If this is of interest please call us and we can discuss it with you.

The main problem facing specifiers is the confusion over terminology and standards. Is LSHF better than LSOH? Is LSF the same as LSZH or RP? These terms are all widely used within the cable industry.

PVC: problems and perils

When standard PVC burns it gives off a number of poisonous gases in particular hydrogen chloride (HCl), which, when combined with moisture forms hydrochloric acid.

The damage caused by burning PVC is two-fold; firstly, dense smoke will obscure exit routes with fumes choking people. The second and less recognised problem is that the acid gas produced in the fire permeates electronic equipment, settling on and corroding printed circuit boards and over a period of time can cause random, unpredictable failure.

Counting the costs

As with most developing products, the durability of new safer compounds is improving all the time with cost penalties reducing as the market grows. LSHF compounds are approximately 2 - 3 times more expensive than PVC and many are considerably slower to extrude, with resulting production costs being substantially greater. Combine this with the much smaller demand for LSHF cable and you can begin to appreciate why they cost more.

However as the market grows the prices will fall. Standard products such as conduit wiring 6491 and booklet-armoured cables are now more readily available in Low Smoke Halogen Free versions than PVC in some areas.

Lighting control systems can be used to maintain ambient light levels depending on for example, detected movement or how much natural light is shining through a window. In the current climate, where we are becoming more and more conscious about our impact on the environment, the need for energy efficient lighting is growing.

Systems such as these can considerably reduce the amount of electricity used, with considerable cost savings. For example, you could set lights to switch off when someone leaves a room, or when enough natural light was present. Lutron are the market leader in lighting control systems such as these and we are pleased to be able to supply LSHF alternatives to the standard PVC Lutron type, as well as the genuine Lutron PVC cable if required.

The 18/22LCCH is designed for use with the Graphik Eye 3000 lighting control system, and is available in LSHF, Duct Grade or Armoured (SWA). It consists of a power pair of 18(7)AWG tinned copper strands with red and black polypropylene insulated cores, running alongside a screened data pair of 22(7)AWG tinned copper strands with purple and white polypropylene insulated cores.

These cables are stocked in long lengths which can be cut to your requirements, saving wastage and reducing your costs. They come in blue as standard in the LSHF version, or in black for Duct grade and Armoured (SWA). Other colours can be made to meet your specific needs, subject to minimum order quantities. Click here to view our range of Lutron cables.

It was a headline that certainly caught our eye. On a recent holiday to Malaysia, Sharon, our financial controller bought a copy of the New Sabbah Times featuring the front page news of the rise in cable and copper theft.

Standard stock cables come in black, grey or high visibility orange, but many customers want specific colours such as yellow, green or blue. If you have a need for a custom designed and manufactured product you may be pleased to know minimum order quantities may be as little as 3km and we can even print it with your name or identity code free of charge! Delivery will normally be around 8 weeks from the time of order. Click here for more information.

What is the contractor sales team?

A team of four people was set up six years ago specifically to look after the needs of contractors and installers within the UK. As well as me, we have another Lee – Lee Girdler, Lynn Hammond and Sarah Flint.

What is different about the contracting team?

What’s your greatest strength?

We have around 35,000 sq ft of warehouse and as our company name - Flexible & Specialist Cables suggests, we stock many of the more unusual products – some in hundreds of thousands of metres. This gives us the opportunity to respond very quickly to both large and small requirements.

How quickly is quickly?

Call and collect is probably the fastest, which can be as quick as ten minutes to pick the product and do the paperwork – just time for a cup of tea! This isn’t always convenient for customers so we have a reliable bunch of couriers, mostly owner drivers, who can deliver within a few hours, depending on the distance, and at a reasonable price. The most popular is our standard next working day service for parcels, drums or pallets. We use Target and a specialist pallet network that have proven to be remarkably reliable – touch wood!

What is the biggest challenge facing the contracting team?

Probably the biggest challenge is the specialist range of products – we don’t sell booklet-armoureds or twin and earth so we are reliant on people remembering us for the more unusual cables. This isn’t so relevant with specialist installers where we play a much bigger part in the supply chain. It is frustrating when we see orders from other distributors or wholesalers for delivery direct to xyz customer who has an account with us.

What about FS Cables holding stock for customers?

This is increasingly popular, particularly with contractors at the start of a project or where installers are using the same types of cable all the time, but don’t want to hold big stocks themselves. In these cases we agree a price and quantity with the customer and then hold it to be called off over an agreed timescale. It also means we can cut cable to length to reduce wastage on site.

What sets you apart from other distributors?

Apart from the products we sell it’s the care we all take – not just here in sales but throughout the company. We don’t have a cut-off time for orders – if we can ship it we will, and I can’t remember a time when an order wasn’t sent out on the same day it was supposed to be. This takes real commitment from everyone.

Do you only deal with established account customers?

No, a lot of the business is with the big contractors but a significant amount comes from small ones, even one man bands, particularly where they specialise in installing a particular type of machinery or equipment. You don’t even need to have an account to deal with us, we take most credit cards or you can always pay on proforma.

What are your largest and smallest orders this year?

So far it’s just under a quarter of a million pounds, down to about twenty pounds. We try to give outstanding service whatever the value, but it’s a great feeling when you’re awarded a big contract.

Do you ever get to meet your customers?

Not as often as we would like to, but we do go to exhibitions and occasionally out to sites. To be honest, we’re not all that good looking! I’m probably more used to dealing with customers with a phone in one hand and a computer in front of me. I would just like to say thank you for all your business, we all really appreciate it.

A big thank you to those who left us comments on the reply card for the winter edition of this newsletter. We had an overwhelmingly positive response and were delighted to read your feedback, please keep it coming.

Trying to incorporate some of your suggestions into future editions will be interesting, but as tempted as we are, it is unlikely we will ever be able to include a TV guide and a sports page!

A number of readers also requested to receive a copy of our Little Red Book on CD. We have plenty more available for those of you who find it more convenient to view it this way.

The number of requests to receive the newsletter by email was also very encouraging and contributes well to our greener approach to business. Please visit www.fscables.com/newsletter.php to sign up, or tick the box on the pre-paid reply card enclosed with this issue.

Welcome to turbulent times. After what was generally regarded as a great year for the cabling industry 2007 has started rather shakily. Copper is dominant factor with the price falling and now starting to recover.

If you are buying power cables there are some great deals around at the moment, with distributors clearing stocks that were purchased when copper was high - even if it means taking a loss. Cleveland Cables in particular are passing on savings brought about by the drop in copper price.

It will be interesting to see if prices start moving back up again to follow the copper rises but for the moment if you have a decent enquiry for armoured cable you could make some real savings. Just be careful not to slip on the blood!

The industry is bracing itself to see what impact the China RoHS legislation will have on Europe, which differs significantly from the EU directive in terms of scope. While it is similar in terms of the 6 hazardous substances - lead, mercury, hexavalent chromium, cadmium, and two flame retardants – with the implementation date of March past us now, we are yet to see clear guidelines for compliance.

Product types not covered under the EU regulations may fall within the scope of China RoHS and vice versa, inevitably leading to confusion.

Many UK companies are still facing confusion over the upcoming WEEE directive, which has been branded vague and lacking in scope. Firms involved in manufacturing or selling OEM parts are most likely to be affected by the new legislation, but where do you draw the line at producer responsibility with so many links in the supply chain?

Conflicting advice on compliance has not helped readiness for this issue, which comes into force fully on July 1st. Companies who are defined as producers of  electrical equipment covered by the new regulations are expected to have signed up to a compliance scheme but confusion still remains as to where the final liability falls.

Big stocks of the popular Hi-Strand OFC speaker cables are available for next day delivery. The Low Smoke Halogen Free versions are proving to be very popular with pubs, clubs and fitness centres.

If you would like more information or a sample please call us, or click here.

At FS Cables our objective for this year is to make significant reductions to our impact on the environment. It was one of our contracting customers who suggested attaining ISO14001 status. Work on this is well underway, with many good ideas coming forward from our staff. We hope that by achieving this environmental award, we can make significant steps in 2007 to protect our surroundings for future generations.

We have also signed up to the Paper Planet recycling scheme, which deals with all of our office based materials such as paper and plastic. It is a daily reminder that everyone within the company has their part to play, and we are encouraging staff to be more environmentally aware in their lives, both at work and outside work.

One thing you can rely on in business today is change. It sometimes appears we have two choices – either change and adapt or die. The latter is clearly less appealing so we’ve decided to change and adapt.

But have we got it right? Some years ago we predicted the end of the FS Cables printed catalogue, yet since then we’ve produced two further editions with a print run of twenty thousand each! Whilst the internet is a massive step forward it simply isn’t practical or appropriate for a lot of people.

This is also reflected by the readers who asked to receive this newsletter electronically which although encouraging, still leaves about 95% requiring it in printed form.

Stock is another area where we need to be one step ahead. For this we are very reliant on customers. If we find a particular system or application is using a certain style of cable we will often put a trial batch of 3 or 5km into stock. Many of these speculative stock items then turn into regular and major product lines.

We invest a huge amount in stock and aim to keep many of the more unusual products as well as large quantities of fast moving products. If we can sell a cable in 12 or 18 months we’ll put it into stock. This bodes well for the future but we have to be aware of the dangers of obsolescence. Data cables in particular are regularly superseded and, just like last years' fashion, only have a limited appeal. 

Thank you for your feedback to the last newsletter and also for all the business you have given us in 2007.We never forget you have a choice.

Yours,

Jon Herbert