Wire/cable market to grow 4% through 1999.

The U.S. wire and cable market will grow from $15.1 billion in 1992 to $20.2 billion in l999 at a 4% compound annual rate, projects a new study just released by Frost & Sullivan.

Insulation will expand its share of total market revenues from 13% in 1992 to 18% in 1999, as power wire and cable grows from 13 to 16% in the same period, says the report, "U.S. wire and cable markets: Ten applications and eight industries led by telecommunications and consumer electronics."

The wire and cable industry will move increasingly toward products specifically designed for particular applications, fueled by demands of large customers and computerized high-volume production.

Fiber optic cable technology will continue to strongly influence evolution of the telecommunications industry. Fiber optics are the area of most concentrated technology development and optic fiber will see even more improvement in its transmission efficiency. There will be increased manufacture of advanced fiber optic cable suitable for extreme environments.

Wire and cable manufacturers are cooperating increasingly in joint product development and technology improvement. A variety of wires and cables will be integrated increasingly into new technologically advanced products.

Superconducting wire and cable markets will develop strongly in the longer term. Engineering plastics will increasingly be used in insulation.

International wire specification standards are pressing domestic manufacturers into falling in line behind them. The apparatus wire and cable market is being particularly affected by increased internationalization of standards.

Key competitive factors in these markets will be price, innovation, product performance and reliability, timeliness, user-friendly and comprehensive service, and responsiveness to evolving customer demands. Strong focus on a niche, combined with innovative product development and high-quality customer service, will be prime characteristics of successful vendors.

The industry, highly dependent as it is on the overall performance of the economy, was hurt significantly by the worldwide recession.

Synthetic organic chemical figures released

The United States International Trade Commission released its figures for the production and sales of synthetic organic chemicals for 1992. This report is the first year in which the data have been presented on an Harmonized Tariff Schedule basis and the figures are in metric.

  Total wire and cable market:
  revenue forecasts (U.S.),
        1989-1999
Year       Revenues      Revenue
          ($ million)   growth rate (%)
1989      13,998.1
1990      14,261.0            2.0
1991      14,625.3            2.6
1992      15,118.0            3.4
1993      15,678.3            3.7
1994      16,294.7            3.9
1995      16,959.3            4.1
1996      17,668.4            4.2
1997      18,423.7            4.3
1998      19,277.0            4.6
1999      20,211.6            4.8
Compound annual growth rate
(1989-1999): 4.2%
Note: all figures are rounded