Europe seeing changes in wire/cable industry

Since the end of the 1990s, limited market growth, higher technical demands, reduced government spending, deregulation, and privatization of the power and telecom networks have buffeted Europe''s wire and cable industry. Since a slight recovery in the industry occurred in 2004, a new period of restructuring has overtaken the industry, says a new study by Applied Market Information (Bristol, England) entitled "AMI''s Guide to the Cable Industry in Western Europe".

This year saw Pirelli''s cable business sold to equity group Goldman Sachs; Wilms Group acquired the German business of ABB and parts of NKT; Draka and Alcatel''s optical-fiber and fiber-optic-cable businesses merged; and the operations of Belden and CDT have done the same, says AMI. Market leaders in Europe remain Pirelli, Draka, and Nexans, which is the former Alcatel cable operation spun off in 2000.

Italy is the largest market accounting for 20% of polymer usage for cable applications. Germany''s market share has fallen significantly from 230 tonnes/yr in 2000 to 202 tonnes/yr this year. Low-voltage cable makes up 49.7% of the total industry demand in Western Europe followed by 23.5% for telecom, 13.5% for medium voltage cable, automotive with 7.1%, high voltage with 3.7%, and 2.4% for other uses.-Robert Colvin; [email protected]