Sparks Electrical News April 2020

CABLES AND CABLE ACCESSORIES

13

Chenfei Wang from CRU Wire and Cable gives insight into the top 10 cable and wire themes of 2020. China’s electricity grid investment will remain static Chinese grid investment suffered a contraction of 9.6% in 2019 compared to the previous year. The country’s utility sector consumes approximately 1.9 Mt conducts of cable a year, with the expected low investment levels in 2020 weighing heavily on power cable demand. Coronavirus outbreak will impact Chinese demand With China currently under lockdown because of the virus outbreak, a further slowdown is expected in Chinese cable demand which, in turn, will drag down key sectors such as construction and automotive that make heavy use of cables. Global automotive industry will face another turbulent year 2019 was a year to forget for the global automotive industry, and it looks as though the situation will not change much in 2020. According to the CRU’s outlook the European automotive industry is supposed to improve slight- ly, while their Asian and North American counterparts will fall short. The wire and cable top 10 themes for the current year

sector. Many small and mid-size construction companies are still facing the policy’s aftermath and having to deal with severe financing difficulties.

ASEAN market will be the world’s fastest growing region While a weak Asian automotive market will negatively impact the ASEAN region’s cable harness sector, on the upside, the region’s urbanisation and industrialisation will continue, with significant benefits for domestic cable demand.Commodity price will remain volatile in the near term The coronavirus outbreak has caused many enduring geopolitical tensions, which will keep commodity prices volatile throughout 2020, especially for copper and Brent crude. CRU Wire and Cable provides independent business intelligence, outlooks, price assessments, and more. All information is gathered first hand by a team of experts and analysts and compiled into well thought out and in-depth articles to help customers in their decision-making strategy.

Enquiries: www.crugroup.com

Trade tensions will keep impacting the global value chain The ‘Phase One’ trade deal, also known as USMCA, struck by China and the US won’t bring any drastic changes to the current low level of US imports from China in the near term; and China will still have to divert its production to other countries. Switch to renewable energy will support power cable demand Power cable demand was the fastest growing seg- ment last year and this trend will continue in 2020 (excluding China), marking the second year in a row. The outlook partially reflects a strong global renewa- ble project pipeline, particularly in the cable-intensive offshore wind sector. India will have a strong 2020 as last October’s five year investment plan (US$1,427 bn) will start to pay off. US$47 bn will be invested this year in the cable end-use sector, particularly power related. This, com- bined with lack of general elections and other fis- cal and monetary stimuli, will result in considerable growth for the Indian market. As London and Brussels negotiate future business re- lationships, the situation between the UK and Europe remains unclear. What is certain is that disconnect between the two markets will have strong direct and indirect impacts on the European market, especially when taking into account the risks tied to the weak automotive sector. India’s cable demand will improve from the 2019 low Brexit uncertainty will remain a key risk to the Western European market Russia’s residential financing policy change will limit demand Russian LVE cable consumption is expected to con- tract this year, as the past year’s housing financing policy change is weighing negatively on the building

been handled by the Portuguese company LAPP Policabos. In these regions, LAPP is supported by sales partners and local staff in Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Nigeria. In order to increase the market opportunities in Africa, a separate sales company will be opened in West Africa. In the near future, LAPP will also expand in East Africa. At the same time, the company’s network of partnerships and digital presence are being continuously expanded.

Enquiries: www.lappkabel.com

SPARKS ELECTRICAL NEWS

APRIL 2020